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FIFTY 

YEAES HISTOET 

OF THE TEMPEEAJSTOE CAUSE. 
INTEMPEKANCE 

THE GREAT NATIONAL CURSE, THREATENING THE PURITY AND 

STABILITY OF OUR INSTITUTIONS, SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS*, 

THE FRUITFUL SOURCE OF POVERTY, MISERY, CRIME, 

AND DEGRADATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND 

FAMILY. 

DESCRIBING 

THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING LIQUORS; POISONOUS 
INGREDIENTS USED IN ADULTERATION; OFFICIAL RE- 
PORTS OF REVENUE RECEIPTS FROM ITS SALE. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH 

OF THE VARIOUS MEANS ADOPTED FOR ITS SUPPRESSION THROUGH 
LEGISLATION, OPEN AND SECRET TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES; 
WASHINGTONIANS ; GOOD TEMPLARS ; GOOD SAMARI- 
TANS *, DAUGHTERS OF SAMARIA, ETC., FROM THE 
FIRST ORGANIZED SOCIETY TO THE PRESENT 
TIME. 

CAREFULLY PREPARED FROM THE MOST RELIABLE AND EMINENT AUTHORITIES. 

BY J. E. STEBBINS, 

AUTHOR OF MOSES AND THE PROPHETS, CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES, FATHERS AND 
MARTYRS ; GLORY OF THE IMMORTAL LIFE, ETC. 

WITH 

A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE NEW PLAN OF 
LABOR BY THE WOMEN UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

BY T. A. H. BROWN, 

i 

REPORTER FOR THE CINCINNATI GAZETTE, WHO HAS BEEN CONSTANTLY IN 
THE FIELD. 

illusteated.-^lTbTagents, only. 

HARTFORD: 
PUBLISHED BY L. STEBBINS. 

CINCINNATI, OHIO :— HENRY HOWE. 
1874. 






.Ssr 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 

L. STEBBINS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



In order to insure efficient action in any direction, it is 
highly important there should be a full understanding of all 
those things which have a practical bearing on the subject 
in hand. In general, there is a vague sort of recognition 
of the claims of Temperance — a thoughtless assent to 
their transcendent importance ; and yet there is a deplora- 
ble apathy and indifference among the mass of the people 
with reference to the whole matter. With a want of con- 
sideration, and perhaps a want of knowledge, they are, in 
great measure, ignorant of the gigantic proportions intem- 
perance is assuming in the land, and the impending danger, 
in consequence, to all the dearest and best interests of hu- 
mankind. They are not aware of the startling facts, which 
are as so many revelations of the power and extent of a 
mighty evil that is working ruin in society, and impoverish- 
ing and degrading, not only individuals and families, but 
even the nation itself. They do not know how long is the 
procession that is marching on under the black banner of a 
most determined foe, nor of the blight and desolation the 
enemy is spreading in its course. They are but slightly 
moved by the stirring appeals that are now and then made 
to them by a passing lecturer, for they have no intelligent 
appreciation of the broad, urgent, and pressing need for 
action. To meet this condition of the common people, is 
the design of the present volume, and in its preparation 
access has been had to the best and most reliable author- 
ities of this country and of Europe. 

It aims to give a faithful representation of the drinking 
system, in its every aspect. It shows what it does and must 
inevitably do in the case of any person who allows himself 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

to come under the influence of it, in any degree. It gives 
a record of the alarming results that attend it, and pictures 
the fearful end of the tippler — darkly shaded, indeed, but 
true, as. too many can testify. The story needs to be told ; 
told until the people — as the heart of one man — shall awake 
to the tremendous issues, and be moved to take part in the 
stern conflict ; told until the eyes and ears of all mankind 
shall be open to see and hear the sights and sounds that are 
associated with this phase of public and private life ; told 
until it shall reach the remotest hamlets, and inspire with 
courage and earnestness that shall be as a universally pop- 
ular sentiment to resist the assaults of a dreaded invader. 
Temperance or Intemperance is the question. Shall the 
benignant reign of the one give us peace and prosper- 
ity, or the wasting desolation of the other be our grief 
and our curse ? The answer belongs to the people. 
Then, let none turn away fro'm these candid and impartial 
statements. Let no prejudice deter any one from a delib- 
erate survey of the important work. Let no one shut his 
heart against the conviction these truths are calculated to 
awaken. It is a vital subject. It touches man's interest 
at every point. It appeals to every attribute of his na- 
ture, his affection, his honor, his ambition, his dignity, and 
as he regards his salvation, in all these and more, he should 
take heed to the call. 

For such an end as this we would send this volume Into 
every family. We would introduce it into every home, and 
say to its inmates — it was meant for your highest weal ; 
take and read it. Let fathers and mothers give it to their 
sons as they go out into the world, and bid them ponder 
and practise ; so shall it be to them as a shield in the time 
of temptation, and fortify them in the hour of danger ; and 
thus there shall be a good beginning in the work of reform, 
that shall gladden the homes and hearts that are to add to 
the stability and glory of the American Republic. 

J. E. STEBBINS. 



I(tet of Illu^ttfitior^. 



Home of the Temperate, 

Home of the Intemperate, 

Drinking Punch and Flip, 

Drinking Cider, - 

Wine at Dinner, - 

The Club Room, - 

Billiard Saloon, - 

Respectable Bar, - 

The Groggery, - 

Alms House and Potters-field, 

Young Lady Offering Her Lover. Wine, 

The Result, 

German Beer Garden, - . 

Wine at Twenty-one, 

Whisky and Brandy at Twenty-eight, 

All Kinds at Thirty-five, - 

Healthful, - 

Mo derate Drinking; 

f 
Drunkards, - 

Ulcerous, 



Page. 
Frontispiece. 
Frontispiece. 

- 33 
33 

- 63 
63 

- 63 
63 

- 63 
63 

- 75 
75 

- 97 
- _ 108 

- 108 
108 

- 108 
108 

- 1C8 
108 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Delirium Tremens, - - - - - - - lOS^ 

Delirium Tremens, - - - - - - -113 

The Five Points, - - - - - - - 129 ^ 

A New York Dancing Saloon, . - - - - 135 

Signing the Pledge, ------- 145 

Police Court, - - - - - - -173 

Washingtonians, - - - ; - ^ . - _ 281 

John B. Gough, - - - - - 309 

Dio Lewis, - - - - - - - .309 

Dr.O. P. Jewett, - - - - - - - 303 

Mrs. Runyan,- - - - - -- - -30 J 

Mother Stewart, - - - . - - - 309 

First Call, or Laying Siege to Van Pelt's Saloon, - - - 345 

Van Pelt Surrenders, ..•-._-._- - - - 351 

Saloon Keeper Surrenders and Signs the Pledge, - - - - 421 

Singing Outside the Saloon, - - - - 443 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Intemperance — the Nation's Curse. 

OUR FAIR HERITAGE. THE CURSE UPON IT. NATURE AND EXTENT. 

'UNITED STATES TAX. CAPITAL INVESTED. FIRST DISTILLATION. 

DRINKING IN HIGH PLACES. ORDINATION BILLS. — FIRST SOCIE- 
TIES. — TOTAL ABSTINENCE. — THE CRISIS Page 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Physiological View of Intemperance. 

AFFINITY OF NATURAL AND MORAL. — DEFACES THE HUMAN FORM. — 
THE DOCTOR'S EXPERIMENT. A PHILOSOPHER'S APHORISMS. ALCO- 
HOL NO PROTECTION AGAINST COLD. — ASSERTION OF AN ENGLISH 
SAILOR. — STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. DR. JEWETT's TES- 
TIMONY AS A MEDICINE 33 

CHAPTER III. 

Intemperance as related to Heart and Intellect. 

RELATION OF MIND AND BODY. — KINGLY POWER OF INTELLECT. — 
DOOM OF TALENTED MEN. QUEEN CITY STATESMEN. THE WAN- 
DERING beggar. — powell's opinion. — epicurus. — hugh miller's 

TESTIMONY. — THE MORAL NATURE. EFFECTS OF MORAL BLIGHT. 43 

CHAPTER IV. 
Social and Religious Outlook. 

NO PART OF BEING UNTOUCHED. — HOME, THE HEART OF THE SOCIAL 
WORLD. — THE YOUNG MAN. — CASE IN WESTERN NEW YORK. — POV- 
ERTY NOT THE GREATEST CURSE. — LOSS TO SOCIETY. — BLIGHT 
UPON THOSE FACULTIES WHICH BUILD UP RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 52 



6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 
Origin of the Evil. 

MODERATE DRINKING. — EFFECT OF A SINGLE GLASS. — SUPPOSITION OF 

ITS LIFE-LONG INFLUENCE. MODERATION INVOLVES THE GREATER 

DANGER. THE MEETING. THE PAUPER'S STORYo — LITTLE BY 

LITTLE . o . . . . . . 62 

CHAPTER VI. 
What is the Stimulant? 

CLEOPATRA. — THE FIRST STEP. — SOCIAL PARTY. — NEW YEAR'S CUS- 
TOM. — THE CREEK INDIAN. — ANECDOTE OF HENRY WILSON. — CHEM- 
ICAL TESTS. — PORT AND MADEIRA, SO CALLED. — WINE DEALER'S 

CONFESSION. PROF. BUTLER'S TESTIMONY. — HORACE GREELEY'S. — 

VOICE FROM PERSIA. — DR. HOLLAND. CALIFORNIAN IDEAS. — BIBLE 

STAND-POINT 

CHAPTER VII. 
Ale and Beer. 

MANKIND SEEK SELF-GRATIFICATION. — WILL BEER INTOXICATE. 

"LOST OR STOLEN." — BEER OF GERMAN ORIGIN. — THE BEER-LOV- 
ING NEIGHBOR. — " THE LITTLE THING." — BEER BILL IN ENGLAND. 

DUKE OF WELLINGTON. FRUIT OF INDULGENCE. BEER-BREWERS' 

CONVICTION " 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Rum and Brandy. 

STEPPING DOWNWARD. — TEMPERANCE PILLARS DISREGARDED. — WIFE'S 
METHOD OF REFORM. THREE STAGES OF DRINK. — ALCOHOLIC DE- 
RANGEMENT OF THE STOMACH OF THE BLOOD. — THE INEBRIATE'S 

CONFESSION. — THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY. — RICH AND POOR ALIKE 
FALL. — WILKES BOOTH. — CASE OF DELIRIUM TREMENS. — THE MAN 
WHO THOUGHT HIMSELF SAFE. — THE MANIAC'S SHRIEK. . . . 

CHAPTER IX. 
Where is it found? 

ALCOHOLIC MISERY CANNOT BE PAINTED. — LOVE OF GAIN THE PRO- 
PELLING MOTIVE. — LORD CHESTERFIELD'S REMARK. — RUM SELLER'S 
TREATMENT OF AN OLD MAN. — THE COUNTRY TAVERN. — HOMES AND 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7 

IIAUNTS OF THE DRUNKARD. — FIVE POINTS. — GROCERS' NETS. — 
FREE LUNCH HOUSES. — FIRST-CLASS HOTELS. — CLUB-ROOMS. — EU- 
ROPEAN AND MODERN STYLE. — POWER OF EXAMPLE 120 

CHAPTER X. 
Probability of Reform. 

HOPE A DIM STAR. — THE YOUNG LADY'S VICTIM. — INDIVIDUAL RE- 
FORM. — GOUGH. — J. HAWKINS. — CONFESSION OF A CONDEMNED 
CRIMINAL. — FATHER OF THE REV. NEWMAN HALL. — HOPELESSNESS 
OF THE WORK. — CONFESSION OF CHARLES LAMB. — SALVATION NOT 
IN RECLAIMING THE DRUNKARD, BUT IN SAVING YOUTH FROM BE- 
GINNING 141 

CHAPTER XI. 

Blighting Effects upon Society. 

CELESTIAL INQUIRER. — CLAIMS OF THE LIQUOR FIEND. — INTEMPER- 
ANCE PRODUCES POVERTY. — INCIDENT WITH A BOSTON LECTURER. 

FRUITFUL SOURCE OF PAUPERISM. — THE " SOCIAL EVIL " STIMU- 
LATES THE MURDEROUS PROPENSITY. — PROMPTS TO SUICIDE. — 
OPPOSES RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. — INDUCES PROFANITY. — THE EN- 
EMY OF THE MISSIONARY. — THE INDIAN'S PROTEST. — APPEAL TO 
THE CHURCH 167 



CHAPTER XII. 

National Loss. 



THEORY OF SOUND. — WHAT CONSTITUTES NATIONAL LIFE. — "BANK 
FOR LOSINGS." — PRODUCTIVE LABOR OF THE NATION LESSENED BY 
A DRINKING HABIT. — MOTIVES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. — THE GRAIN- 
DESTROYING CURSE. — OBSTRUCTS TRADE AND COMMERCE. — IMPAIRS 
THE ARMY AND NAVY. — CURTAILS THE POWER OF LITERARY INSTI- 
TUTIONS. — AN IMAGINARY PICTURE 183 



CHAPTER XIII. 

What is the Remedy? 



NO "HAPPY VALLEY' BUT IN FANCY. — MORAL SUASION. — SIGNING 
THE PLEDGE. — SELF-RESPECT NEVER REGAINED. — GOUGH's CON- 
FESSION. — TOTAL ABSTINENCE THE ONLY TRUE REMEDY. — THE 
COURT CLERK. — TESTIMONY OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN. — ANEC- 



8 TABLE OE CONTENTS, 

DOTE OF FARRAGUT. — BIBLE PRINCIPLES. — HOMES FOR INEBRI- 
ATES. — VIEWS OF MR. POMEROY. FROM THE PATIENT'S STAND- 
POINT. — CHAPLAIN'S STATEMENT. — LAW INTERFERENCE. . . . 195 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Temperance Workers. 

GREAT PRINCIPLES IMMORTAL. — DR. BACON ON SLOW IDEAS. — THE 
FIRST PLEDGE. — THE EARLY AGITATION. — DR.' JUSTIN EDWARDS. — 
THE FEARLESS PREACHER. — HON. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. — DR. 
JEWETT. — REV. THOMAS P. HUNT. — REV. JOHN PIERPONT. — JUDGE 
CROSBY. — " THE NOTT CONTROVERSY." — FATHER MATIIEW. — FA- 
THER TAYLOR. — WASHINGTONIANS. — JOHN B. GODGH 217 



CHAPTER XV. 

Temperance Societies. 



UNITED ACTION, FIRST NATIONAL TEMPERANCE CONVENTION. VIEW 

OF DR. HITCHCOCK. — MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL. — REV. JOHN 
MARSH. — WORLD'S TEMPERANCE CONVENTION AT LONDON. — TEM- 
PERANCE AND LIFE INSURANCE. SONS OF TEMPERANCE. — GOOD 

TEMPLARS. THEIR ORIGIN. — FATHER BRISTOL. — TEMPLARS OF 

HONOR AND TEMPERANCE. — EXTRACT FROM TEMPLARS' MANUAL. — 
RECHABITES. — GOOD SAMARITANS. — IS TEMPERANCE A FAILURE ? 237 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Adulteration of Liquors. 

FASHION AND PURITY. — THE COLORADO SALOON KEEPER. — FOURCROY, 
THE FRENCH CHEMIST. — PROFESSOR LEE'S STATEMENT. — ASSER- 
TION OF DR. STORY. — STRYCHNINE. STRAMONIUM. — THE DEAD 

FISHERMEN. — THE IRISH TOPERS. — COCCULUS. — CONFISCATION AT 
BOSTON. — ANALYTICAL OBSERVATIONS OF DR. COX. — PURCHASE OF 
NEW YORK PHYSICIANS. — " GUIDE " RECEIPTS. — THE DRUGGIST'S 
BRANDY. — RUM. — GIN. — BEER 258 

CHAPTER XVII. 

License and Prohibition. 

GOOD AND EVIL AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER. — THE TWO LEADING PRIN- 
CIPLES. — FOR WHAT DO WE GRANT LICENSE? — MINER BEFORE THE 
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. — A HUNDRED DIFFERENT LAWS. — 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 9 

DECLARATION OF DR. HUMPHREY. — CONSTABLE'S REPORT. — STATE 
BOARD OF CHARITIES. — WHAT ALBERT BARNES SAYS. — PROHIBITION 

THE ONLY THING. — PROTECTIVE POWER. ENGLAND'S POSITION. — 

NEAL DOW FATHER OF PROHIBITION. — TESTIMONY AS TO RESULTS. — 
CALL TO ACTION 274 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Legislative Action. 



TREE OF LIBERTY. — ANCIENT EMPIRES. — SUPPRESSION. — ORIGIN OF 
THE MAINE LAW. — MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATION. — CONNECTICUT 
AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. — NEW YORK. — SPEECH OF HENRY WARD 
BEECHER. — OPPOSITION AT TAMMANY HALL. — LOCAL OPTION. — 

CIVIL DAMAGE. — MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. THE PLEADER'S WORDS. 

— THE GREAT TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT 288 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11 



WOMEN'S TEMPERANCE CRUSADE. 



INTRODUCTION. By Dio Lewis. 

EARLY IMPRESSED WITH THE POWER OF PRAYER. — THREE HUNDRED 
AND FORTY LECTURES ON THE SUBJECT. — THE FIRST INSTANCES 
WHERE THIS POWER WAS TRIED UPON GROG SHOPS. — DIXON, ILL., 
AND BATTLE CREEK, MICH., DRIVE OUT THE DRAM SELLERS. — 
HOW THE MOVEMENT WAS SMOTHERED IN MANCHESTER, N. H. — 

THE MOVEMENT ANALYZED. A PRAYER MEETING FROM BEGINNING 

TO END. DIFFERENCE IN PRAYERS. — THE PLAN WHICH LARGE 

CITIES SHOULD ADOPT 341 



CHAPTER XIX. 



ORIGIN OF THE WOMAN S MOVEMENT. — THE NEW LAW FOR THE SUP- 
PRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. — DIO LEWIS'S PLAN AT UILLSBORO'. — 
WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE THE NEXT PLACE. — HOW SLATER WAS 
SQUELCHED. — THE FIRST TABERNACLE. — SIEGE OF CHARLIE BECK, 
ETC 351 

CHAPTER XX. 

MARVELLOUS SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. — SUDDEN REDEMPTION OF 

WILMINGTON. THE EPIDEMIC IN GREENFIELD. — TnE FAMOUS SIEGE 

OF VAN PELT AT NEW VIENNA. — HIS WICKEDNESS AND HIS SURREN- 
DER. — THE GLOOMY HISTORY OF MORROW A GOOD TEMPERANCE 

TRACT. ABOUT SELLING CORN TO DISTILLERS. — A WAYNESVILLE 

PRAYER MEETING REPRODUCED. — A FORTY- NINE DAYS* SIEGE AT 
CORWIN 371 



CHAPTER XXI 



REVIEW OF THE LEGAL CASES. — WERE THE WOMEN TRESPASSERS ON 

PRIVATE RIGHTS ? — THE CELEBRATED DUNN SUIT. THE WARNING, 

THE TABERNACLE, AND THE INJUNCTION. OTHER FUTILE EFFORTS 

TO ENJOIN THE WOMEN. — THE SCHEIDE INJUNCTION, AND HOW IT 
WAS DISSOLVED. LEGAL PROSECUTIONS AT LEBANON. — A COMPARI- 
SON OF THE LAW AND GOSPEL METHODS 393 



12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A CHAPTER OF TEMPERANCE LAWS. — THE CELEBRATED ADAIR AND 

BAXTER LAWS. — OTHER MUNICIPAL AND STATE LEGISLATION. THE 

" MCCONNELSVILLE ORDINANCE." — HOW FAR THE LAWS HAVE 
FAILED IN EXECUTION, AND THE REASONS THEREFOR. — LITIGATION 

. UNDER THE ADAIR LAW. — DAMAGES SELDOM RECOVERED IN THE 
CITIES, BUT OFTEN IN THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS 410 



CHAPTER XXIII 



THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH OF DIO LEWIS. — THE MAN AND HIS OPINIONS. — 
THE XENIA MASS MEETING. — INAUGURATION OF THE WORK IN SPRING- 
FIELD, LEBANON, MOUNT VERNON, ETC. MOTHER STEWART, THE 

SPRINGFIELD LEADER. — INTERVIEWS WITH SALOON KEEPERS. — WHY 

THE MASS MEETING AT COLUMBUS FAILED. THANKSGIVING JUBILEE 

AT WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE. THE TRANSFORMATION OF XENIA, 

MOUNT VERNON, ETC. — REMARKABLE SURRENDER OF THE SHADES OF 
DEATH. . 425 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

THE MOVEMENT SPREADS TO INDIANA. — SHELBYVILLE THE FIRST POINT 

ASSAILED. A JUVENILE SPREE THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE. — THE HOME 

OF THE AUTHOR OF THE BAXTER LAW. — NOBLE WORK OF THE QUA- 
KER LADIES OF RICHMOND. SUDDEN UPRISING IN FORT WAYNE. 

HOW THE INDIANAPOLIS WOMEN DIRECTED THEIR ENERGIES. — PRAYER 
AND THE BAXTER LAW JOIN HANDS 

CHAPTER XXY. 

THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT IN THE LARGE CITIES. — DIFFERENT CONDI- 
TIONS IN CITY AND COUNTRY. — THE EXPERIMENT FIRST TRIED IN 
DAYTON. — HEROISM OF THE PRAYING BANDS, AND INSULTING CON- 
DUCT OF THE MOB. — EXCITEMENT PRODUCED BY THE CAMPAIGN IN 
COLUMBUS. — DISCOURAGEMENTS FROM EVERY QUARTER. — PRAYER 
MEETING IN THE CAPITOL. — HOW THE MUNICIPAL CODE WAS SAVED 
INTACT. — THE CRUSADE IN CLEVELAND. — CINCINNATI A FORMIDABLE 
POINT. — THE THREE STAGES OF THE MOVEMENT THERE. — INTENSE 
OPPOSITION OF THE LIQUOR SELLERS AND GERMANS. — THE CHURCHES 
PUT TO GOOD USE. — PROCLAMATION OF THE MAYOR, ETC. . . . 461 



CHAPTER XXVI 



THE MOVEMENT IN THE EAST. — ON THE PACIFIC COAST. — IN THE 
SOUTH AND WEST. — WORCESTER THE TRIAL POINT IN NEW ENG- 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 

LAND. — THE WESTERN PLAN DISCARDED. — THE INTEREST IN NEW 
TORK CITY. — INFLUENCE OP THE CRUSADE PELT IN CONGRESS. — 
DESCENT UPON THE MARYLAND LEGISLATURE. — GREAT RESULTS IN 
PHILADELPHIA. — DISGRACEFUL SCENE IN CHICAGO. — IN GENERAL. 486 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

LICENSE VS. PROHIBITION. — THE PROHIBITIONISTS TRY TO CAPTURE 
THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. — LICENSE VIGOROUSLY OPPOSED BY THE 
LADIES. — THE PIRST GRAND CONVENTION IN COLUMBUS. — PROHI- 
BITION STATE CONVENTION AT MT. VERNON. — SECOND WOMAN'S CON- 
VENTION. — MASS MEETING IN CINCINNATI FOR AND AGAINST LICENSE. 
— GRAND WOMAN'S ANTI-LICENSE CONVENTION IN CINCINNATI. . . 4:97 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. — 
BITTER ARTICLES AND ABSURD STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE GERMAN 
PAPERS. — A SPECIMEN OF BEER DRINKERS' RESOLUTIONS. — ATTI- 
TUDE OF THE CATHOLICS. — ARCHBISHOP PURCELL's LETTER. — A 
MANSFIELD PRIEST'S ANATHEMA. — DR. J. G. HOLLAND IN OPPOSI- 
TION, ETC., ETC 511 



CHAPTER I. 

Intemperance — the Nation's Curse. 

OUR FAIR HERITAGE. — THE CURSE UPON IT. — NATURE AND EXTENT. 

— UNITED STATES TAX. — CAPITAL INVESTED. — FIRST DISTILLATION. 

— DRINKING IN HIGH PLACES. — ORDINATION BILLS. — FIRST SOCIE- 
TIES. — TOTAL ABSTINENCE. — THE CRISIS. 

A fairer heritage is not to be desired than that 
which is given to the dweller upon American soil. 
Whether we look at the munificence of nature, or that 
which hath been wrought out by the agency of men in 
their onward march to civilization, we are compelled to 
say that ours is a goodly land. 

From the forest-crowned hills of New England's re- 
motest corner to the sunniest slopes on the Pacific shore, 
there are countless forms of beauty and grandeur to 
challenge admiration, besides an equal display of those 
things which develop into the more substantial utilities 
of life ; making the country what it is — rich and pros- 
perous. The enthusiast in every direction may find in 
the rock-ribbed hills, the winding streams, the smiling 
meadows and broad prairies, the wild and picturesque 
valleys, the snow-clad mountains and the stretch of 
2 < 17 > 



18 INTEMPEEANCE, 

ocean, that which will meet his every want, foster his 
wildest ambition. The adventurer pushes on to new 
and unexplored regions, and at every step opens up new 
wonders to the gaze of the world. 

The speculator, in his search for more of treasure, 
turns over the stones which hide the golden dust and the 
shining metals, and he finds that Nature opens her veins 
and rewards him with a lavish hand. They who would 
look above these material considerations, and desire the 
elevation of mankind in a higher sense, find their wishes 
met and their hopes strengthened in the universal diffu- 
sion of knowledge, the number and variety of the insti- 
tutions which have for their object the accomplishment 
of these very ends. 

The social, political, and religious advantages which 
are denied to so many of the nations of the earth, are 
open to the mass of the people ; and altogether, we are 
constrained to say, it is a goodly heritage. With these 
God-given conditions, that were designed to make man- 
kind happier and better, we yet fail to come up to the 
requisite standard of goodness and virtue. The original 
paradise, we know, was dismantled by the fall, and since 
then there is no portion of the world without its dark 
features ; but enough was preserved from tho wreck and 
ruin to remain as a rich legacy, had it been cherished 
and kept as it should be. No one can look abroad at 
the present time, and not be painfully conscious that 
there is a fearful curse upon us — that there is a blight- 
ing influence at work — a canker eating into the very 
heart of society, and sapping the foundations of our 
dearest and best institutions. This gigantic evil, this 
cruel monster, is Intemperance ; and its frightfully in- 
creasing power and prevalence are enough to startle a 
world from its lethargy and indifference, and incite to 
active measures for the suppression of that which is be- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 19 

coming a terrible and wide-spread devastation. Were a 
foreign foe to invade our country, and arrogate to them- 
selves superior power by dictating laws in opposition to 
those of our own beneficent government, with what 
earnest and decisive measures would they be met ! How 
strongly would the spirit be rebuked ! No means would 
be left untried to quell the disturbing forces. No sacri- 
fice would be counted too dear to win the result, and 
restore harmony, by sending back the threatening in- 
vaders, and looking well to internal fortresses. But 
more to be dreaded than the wiliest and most deter- 
mined external foe is this modern Giant of Intemperance 
that is stalking through the length and breadth of our 
land, leaving misery, poverty, crime, and every species 
of ruin in its path. The rebellious hordes may attempt 
invasion and raise their own issues, and all this will be 
met, for at the clarion call of the country thousands will 
rush to the scene of conflict, armed, equipped, and 
nerved for a mighty onset ; but the stronger and more 
seductive influences that are unceasingly at work, prey- 
ing upon the vital interests of the nation, are left com- 
paratively unchecked, and altogether without means 
commensurate with the necessities of the case. A want 
of consideration, it may be, is one prominent reason for 
the neglect. Many perhaps deplore it as it comes within 
their own narrow range of observation, perhaps within 
the circle of their acquaintance ; but a thoughtful, in- 
telligent, broad view reveals the fact of a nation in peril 
— a nation in so much danger that it calls for the wisest 
and most careful- legislation, that, if possible, the immi- 
nent and threatened evil may be averted, and the cloud 
lifted that encircles us with so much of gloom. 

Sad as the contemplation of these things may be, it is 
nevertheless a duty of every lover of his race, every 
citizen who is interested in maintaining a fair and pros- 



20 INTEMPERANCE, 

perous condition of things in the country, to look the 
startling and alarming facts in the face, that they may 
be prepared for intelligent co-operation in the great work 
that needs to be done. To say nothing of the countless 
forms of wretchedness that is induced by the Demon of 
Drink, it is like a desolating scourge, that is impoverish- 
ing our land, robbing its inhabitants of everything that 
should be their glory and their pride. Estimates made 
with regard to the consumption of spirituous liquors are 
perfectly appalling. It has been said by one interested 
in these calculations that " there is a sufficient quantity 
of fermented and distilled liquor used in the United 
States, in one year, to fill a canal four feet deep, fourteen 
feet wide, and one hundred and twenty miles in length." 
" The liquor saloons and hotels of New York city" alone, 
he says, " if placed in opposite rows, would make a 
street like Broadway eleven miles in length." The 
statement is intensified in the assertion that " the places 
where intoxicating drinks are made and sold in this 
country, if placed in rows in direct lines, would make a 
street one hundred miles in length. If the victims of 
the rum traffic were there also, we should see a suicide 
at every mile, and a thousand funerals a day." Cculd 
"the drunkards of America," he continues, "be placed 
in procession five abreast, they would make an army 
one hundred miles in length." And all this vast com- 
pany, under the influence of that which is nothing less 
than soul-destroying fire, are continually adding to the 
long catalogue of crimes which unrestrained human pas- 
sion is capable of committing ; and thus it is that our 
public records are stained with the recital of the most 
atrocious and daring deeds of cruelty that fiendish malice 
can perpetrate. They carry the flaming torch of the 
incendiary in one hand, and the knife of the murderous 
assassin in the other ; and the fire and the bloodshed 



ITS ASPECT ANT) ITS EEMEDY. 21 

create a momentary sensation, and it has gone. Theo- 
retically, public sentiment is against all this. It deplores 
the existence of so tremendous an evil ; but practically 
the great part of the people have been soothing them- 
selves to sleep when they ought to have been awake 
and in earnest to meet the emergencies of the age in 
this direction. 

A long, sad wail comes up from desolated homes, 
broken hearts, crushed hopes, and squandered fortunes, 
all over the land ; and with it there is borne on the 
breeze the despairing cry, "Is there no help for us?" 
To-day there seems a disposition to heed the cry, and 
haste to the rescue ; and thrice happy will be the day 
when these efforts shall be crowned with success. It is 
no trifling issue. It is not the work of any limited 
period of time, but an unceasing and persistent warfare 
waged against it will eventually do much towards sub- 
duing it. Philanthropists and good men need to be on 
the alert. Evil and selfish principles are active under 
the dominion of the enemy. 

The investment of capital and the enlistment of en- 
ergy in these departments are strikingly at variance with 
the enginery for good. In the single State of New York, 
where there are over seven thousand churches, there are 
over twenty-one thousand licensed dram-shops. There 
are no computations for the practical sorrows which flow 
out of this extended traffic. The sighs and tears, the 
groans, miseries, and woes, cannot be told ; yet statistics 
enable one to form some idea of what these may be, 
when* it is considered what the nature of the cause is 
which produces the effect. The amount of tax collected 
by the United States on spirits for a single year of re- 
cent date, with the amount in quantity which it repre- 
sented, aggregated a money interest of over 1400,000,000. 
The corresponding tax upon beer for the same time, with 



22 INTEMPERANCE, 

the same representation, showed a money value of 
1300,000,000 more. Added to this was the interest of 
the wine trade, of about $75,000,000. This, together 
with the import trade of liquors, beer, and wine, pre- 
sented a total of nearly $165,000,000. This has nothing 
to do with the vast amount of capital invested in the 
requisite buildings and machinery to carry on the stu- 
pendous work, nor with the expense involved in the 
various demands in the prosecution of the trade. This 
swells the figures far beyond those we have given. Nor 
does the cost stop here. Back of all this is a story of 
loss which no money can supply. It has been said, if 
one were to take a final count of even this sum, at 
twenty thousand dollars a day, it would take more than" 
an ordinary lifetime to complete the task ; that, if it 
were in gold, and loaded in wagons, it would fill more 
than a thousand wagons of a ton each, and, if in silver, 
it would require more than fourteen thousand, while the 
procession would extend over seventy-five miles ; and 
all this would be but the representation of a single year 
of the terrible traffic. 

It is estimated that there are those so confirmed in the 
habit of intemperance as to bear the name of drunkard, 
as to make an army of 600,000 in the United States ; 
60,000 of these annually pass out of sight, filling dis- 
honored graves, " unwept, unhonored, and unsung," 
because every trace of their manhood had been obliter- 
ated, and every promising hope blasted, by their mad 
career. Notwithstanding this lamentable fact, the places 
they knew are filled by others ; and the unbroken, ranks 
pursue their march, to re-enact the same fearful trage- 
dies, and reach the same untimely end. Those who 
pander to the wants of this vast multitude are selfish 
and unscrupulous in their measures, and unceasingly ply 
their ruinous arts, regardless of the consequences. Oth- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 23 

ers may seek to advance the moral and spiritual interests 
of the country, but they are everywhere met by this 
mighty obstacle. 

The unequal contest is observed in the calculation 
that while 112,000,000 are annually spent in keeping 
watchmen upon the hills of Zion, 1700,000,000 are em- 
ployed in ministering to the depraved appetites of men, 
inducing morbid conditions of mind and body, thus 
bringing into action a host of counteracting influences, 
which hinder the salvation of the country. Could the 
money that is appropriated in this direction be diverted 
from its accustomed channel, and go to swell the tide of 
human interests, churches, schools, colleges, libraries, 
and every benevolent institution would dot every por- 
tion of our land ; life and health giving streams would 
flow through all its borders ; and from countless homes 
and hearts would issue such a jubilant anthem as was 
never before sung upon earth. 

It may be asked, " Is it worse now than in the days 
of old?" However that may be, it certainly ought to 
be better ; but a glimpse of the past may give some sat- 
isfaction to the propounder of such a question. Fashion 
and custom throw about these things, as in all others, 
their various forms at different periods, so that we find 
things regulated by another standard entirely as we go 
back. 

A thousand years of the world passed away in blissful 
ignorance of the nature and power of alcohol. Even 
its existence, as extracted from fermented liquor, was 
unknown. Then the people of Arabia wrought out the 
discovery which has proved such a curse, not only to this 
nation., but to almost every other. When the process 
was first accomplished, " no one knew what this product 
of distillation was , nor was there any language that had 
for it even a name. They, however, called it alcohol, 



24 INTEMPEKANCE, 

and that is now the chemical name in every country. 
The word had been previously used in Arabia as the 
name of a fine powder, which the ladies had used to 
give brilliancy to their complexions. It was soon ascer- 
tained to be a poison, and no one thought of using it for 
a drink. About the year 1230, it began to be used in 
the south of Europe as a medicine ; and from thence its 
use gradually extended for that purpose over various 
parts of the civilized world. Judging from its immedi- 
ate effects," it was thought to be a valuable boon to the 
human race, cheering, strengthening, and prolonging 
existence, intensifying all the enjoyments of mankind, 
adding those that were hitherto unknown, until it came 
to be denominated "the water of life." The most 
extravagant things were written extolling its peculiar 
and wonderful properties. Said a writer of the times, 
in the quaint language of the period, " It sloweth age, 
it strengthened youth, it helpeth digestion, it abandon- 
eth melancholie, it relisheth the heart, it lighteneth the 
mind, it quickeneth the spirits, it keepeth and preserv- 
eth the head from whirling, the eyes from dazzling, the 
tongue from lisping, the mouth from snaffling, the teeth 
from chattering, and the throat from rattling ; it keepeth 
the stomach from wambling, the heart from swelling, the 
hands from shivering, the sinews from shrinking, the 
veins from crumbling, the bones from aching, and the 
marrow from soaking." 

With such ideas of its transcendent virtues, it is not 
strange that the indulgence of it as a beverage became 
more and more common. Ignorant of its physiological 
effects, and glorying in the exhilaration of the draught, 
many came to think they could not live without it. 
More and more extensive became its use ; and in 1581, 
during the Netherland war, we find the English giving 
it to their soldiers, to fit them better, as they supposed, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 25 

for their work, and kindle anew their warlike propensi- 
ties. It was not until the year 1700 that the people of 
our own country became interested in the matter of dis- 
tillation, and then a distillery was opened at Boston. 
From that time the business rapidly increased, and 
spread through various parts of the United States, so 
that in 1815 the number of distilleries had come to be 
numbered by thousands, sending out millions of gallons 
of the fiery stimulant for a waiting people. " With the 
mass of the people," it is said, " distilleries were for a 
long time considered a blessing to the country. They 
furnished, it was thought, a ready market for the surplus 
grain ; they gave a new value to the orchard, whose 
superabundant fruit could at once be converted into 
brandy ; they brought ready employ to the carpenter, 
the cooper, the carrier, and furnished the nation with 
an excellent article, which it was importing from Hol- 
land and the West Indies at great cost. Pious men, 
deacons of churches, owned and labored in them, with- 
out loss of character. It is even affirmed that one of 
New England's strongest divines, filling one of the best 
pulpits in the land, ministering to the spiritual wants of 
a large congregation, was during the week employed in 
perfecting the operations and superintending the affairs 
of a distillery, which was adding to his material gain. 

If a convention of ministers was to be held, the exhil- 
arating element was the chief attraction. Among the 
curious items of history at the present day, are some 
such bills, where brandy and cider were by far the 
largest appropriation. The following bills in connection 
with a church in Hartford, Ct., will serve as characteris- 
tic specimens of these times. On the back of the first 
bill is written, "Ordination : eight pounds* allowed, and 
order given on treasurer in full." 



26 intemperance, 

The South Society, in Hartford, 
17 g 4 To Israel Seymour, Dr. 

May 4th. To keeping ministers, &c. 

2 mugs tody, £0 2 4 

5 segars, 5 10 

1 pint wine, 3 

3 lodgings, 9 

May 5th. To 3 bitters, 9 

3 breakfasts, . 3 6 

15 boles punch, . " 1 10 

24 dinners, 1 16 

11 bottles wine, 3 6 

5 mugs flip, 5 10 

3 boles punch, 6 

3 boles tody, 3 6 

£8 3 11 

This was the year that Hartford was first incorporated 
as a city. 

Still another, on a similar occasion, of a later date, 
illustrates the peculiarity of the times: — 

South Society 

To Thomas Seymour, Dr. 

For the expenses attending the Ordination of Mr. Flint, 
April 19 and 20, 1791.* 

To 50 lemons, at 10s., £0 10 

3 gallons of wine of D. Bull, .... 16 10 
1 gallon of ditto of G. Burnham, ... 6 6 
1 ditto of cherry rum, 10 

1 gallon of best spirits, 6 

2 quarts of brandy, 030 

* This was for sixteen men to dine one day, and forty the second. 



ITS ASPECT ANT> ITS REMEDY. 27 

To 1 large loaf of sugar, 16 lbs., at Is. 6c?., . £1 4 
1 brown sugar, half quarter, 10s., ... 10 

half barrel best cyder, 6 

60 wt. of best flour, . ....... 12 

24 lbs. of butter, 18 

10 doz. eggs, at 6c?., 5 

1 bushel of apples, 3 1 

spices, ..060 

raisins, ..030 

3 lbs. of coffee, .." 024 

1 lb. of tea, 080 

18 lbs. best beef, 060 

2 qrs. veal, &c, 15 10 

1 turkey, 068 

1 doz. fowls, 12 

3 hams, at Qd., 18 6 

vegetables, 086 

pickles, 2s. 6d., 2 6 

pipes, Is. 6d., 016 

tobacco, 4s. 3c?., 4 3 

2 bushels oats, 030 

hire of attendance, 1 16 

hire house cleaned, 4 

walnut wood, 080 

extra trouble, 300 

Total, <£16 15 7 

The generous mixture went the rounds, until spar- 
kling wit and brilliant sarcasm were in full play. At one 
time, for the greater refreshment of the whole man, a 
little cracker was put in the cup. At a certain gather- 
ing of these ministerial dignitaries, the tender conscience 
of one of the brethren became somewhat disturbed by 
the indulgence, and tasted the cracker, while he refused 
the accompanying potion, whereupon a reverend brother 
remarked, in tones of sarcastic rebuke, " You will eat 
the devil, but not drink his broth." 

For a long time, ministers were wont to prepare them- 



28 INTEMPERANCE, 

selves for their morning exercises on the Sabbath by an 
extra dram. The wedding and the funeral were alike 
occasions for its use. School committees took their seats 
at the last day among the juvenile crowd ; and the flow- 
ing bumper was there, to call out all the goodly qualities 
of their natures, and bring the social current into lively 
exercise. In short, the use of the alcoholic stimulant 
became general among the American people. It came 
to be considered the grand panacea for all the ills of life, 
a necessity for all classes of people and all conditions of 
being. It fortified one against the heat of summer and 
the cold of winter. Tbe "glass" was associated with 
every object and interest of life. Seldom was a bargain 
ratified without it, and a social party or visit was never 
complete aside from it. It was the parishioner's wel- 
come to his pastor, an important part to a friendly greet- 
ing. The decanter, with its usual accompaniments, was 
an essential feature of house-furnishing. At stated 
times it was regularly resorted to, until custom marked 
the morning dram as indispensable, one at eleven and at 
four o'clock, and still another to prepare for the slum- 
bers of the night. These were necessities. Those inter- 
spersed were governed by inclination and convenience, 
or by the peculiarity of circumstance. During the war 
of the American Revolution, government furnished the 
soldiers a regular allowance of the article, under the 
mistaken apprehension that it would make them better 
soldiers. When the war closed and the men disbanded, 
carrying the habits of the barrack to their homes, it was 
found that the custom of drinking intoxicating liquors 
was becoming so universally prevalent in all classes of 
society, that the more thoughtful and intelligent began 
to wake up to the subject, and consider the importance 
of doing something to check what seemed to them a 
rapidly growing evil. Licensed by the government, and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 31 

sanctioned, as it had been, by the Christian church, the 
public mind had failed to grasp it in its true bearings. 
Neighborhoods and communities had hailed the distillery 
as a means of blessing to them. It enhanced the value 
of their hard-earned products, and filled their otherwise 
scanty coffers with wealth. Altogether, it had become 
a mighty and complicated enterprise ; but no candid 
observer could shut his eyes to the fact that, whatever 
might be said for it, it was nevertheless a prolific source 
of wretchedness and want. The conviction pressed 
itself home upon the strongest and best minds that some- 
thing must be done. The yeomanry of the land would 
not be likely to begin the work of reform ; for, while 
those in higher walks and circles were saying, by theii 
example, it was good for them, they felt justified in its 
use themselves. If it was good for the minister in his 
work, it was not less so for the weary tiller of the soil. 
The ablest and best talent of the times became enlisted 
in the cause, and the inevitable tendency of the wide- 
spread habit was held up to view. The public mind, 
once aroused to the contemplation of the subject, became 
thoroughly in earnest. Agencies were set in motion, 
societies formed, pledges drawn up and signed, and -the 
people called to take a decided stand against that which 
experience denounced as a great wrong. From time to 
time, earnest speeches were made, and the work of re- 
form went steadily on. The decanters were withdrawn 
from the sideboards of the higher and more influential 
circles. 

The tide of public sentiment turned against the prac- 
tice. Some began to be more shy and reserved in its 
use. But, while the stronger concoction was put out of 
sight in good measure, cider became the common bever- 
age. Ordinary families filled their cellars with barrels 
of this article for their winter use, and not a meal of the 



32 INTEMPERANCE, 

day was complete without it. At every neighborly call, 
the mug of cider went the rounds, and it was not un- 
common that forty and fifty barrels were little enough 
for the demands of a common household. As in Massa- 
chusetts the work of distillation had commenced, so 
there were inaugurated some of the first reformatory 
movements of the times. In 1813 a society was formed 
that had for its object the suppression of intemperance ; 
but, inasmuch as this had only to do with what was con- 
sidered the "too free use" of the corrupting drink, it 
fell short of the demand. The views of some promi- 
nent Englishmen found their way to our shores, in which 
total abstinence was set forth as the only true basis of 
action. Dr. Lyman Beecher, Dr. Edwards, and some of 
the leading spirits of New England, fell in with the doc- 
trine, and lent their powerful arguments to the new 
issue. Gradually the leaven permeated society, reno- 
vated the church, and from that time temperance became 
one of the leading questions of the age. Societies rap- 
idly multiplied ; organizations were effected that had for 
their sole object the mitigation of an evil which was ac- 
knowledged to be the greatest curse of the nation. 

Notwithstanding all the effort that has been made, 
the curse still remains, and the question is still before 
the people, " What shall be done to uproot the social 
evil?" for such is the phase it assumes. The voice of 
the people crieth ont against the use of the deadly stim- 
ulant. A stigma rests upon the sale of it; and thou- 
sands, impelled by the love of gain, and yet fearful of 
losing their respectable standing, will resort to every 
trick of artifice and every form of secrecy to carry on 
their unhallowed trade unbeknown to the world. It is 
smuggled in every manner, labelled with every conceiv- 
able device, paraded by numberless mysterious signs; 
and private entrances and curtained rooms in all our 




drinking cider.— (Ste page 32.) 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 33 

cities and villages lure the unwary youth, until they are 
under the dominion of the tempter before the watchful 
eye of even the family has discovered the danger. 

A certain phase of American life doubtless tends to 
foster this unhealthy and unhappy condition of things. 
The rapid and extended communication among our peo- 
ple, the exciting chase for wealth, the eager determina- 
tion to rise above their fellows, and the propensity to 
ignore the slow methods of accumulation, have all won 
for us the reputation of a fast-going people. This un- 
natural excitability demands an artificial stimulus. It 
will have it. The youth of the country cannot bide the 
plodding necessities of their condition, and they rush to 
the cities to realize their brilliant ideal of life. A large 
part of them enter the arena, and engage in the contest, 
before their characters are formed and their principles 
are established; and, without the restraints of home, 
they fall an easy prey to the seducer, and are in the 
meshes of the destroyer ere they are hardly conscious 
of their position themselves. Retreat then seems im- 
possible, and they rush on in reckless indulgence and 
extravagance, until they meet the end of their fate ; and 
too often it is a sad story of ruin and disgrace. Thus it 
is that intemperance is becoming fearfully manifest 
among the j 7 oung men of the land. Could something 
be done to place an effectual check upon these buddings 
of evil, and hinder their rapid working and develop- 
ment, it would be a glad day for the American people. 
A crisis is upon us. It is a grave, complicated, and mo- 
mentous question. The social and moral bearings of the 
subject demand attention. Political and religious influ- 
ence needs to be exerted in its behalf. A revolutionary 
movement of right impetus and character is loudly called 
for. The wretched system of adulteration that prevails 
at the present time, with its vast proportion of poisonous 



64: INTEMPERANCE, 

compounds, makes the habit of drinking now more per- 
nicious in its effects upon soul and body than it was in 
the days of the fathers. 

The mass of the people are ignorant of these things 
to a great extent. Let them carefully look into these 
things ; candidly trace the origin, workings, and results 
of the whole matter ; and then study out, if they can, 
the solution of the mighty problem, What shall be done 
to secure the salvation of our country from the curse of 
Intemperance ? 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 35 



CHAPTER II. 

Physiogloical View of Intemperance. . 

AFFINITY OF NATURAL AND MORAL. — DEFACES THE HUMAN FORM. — 
THE DOCTOR'S EXPERIMENT. — A PHILOSOPHER'S APHORISMS. — ALCO- 
HOL NO PROTECTION AGAINST COLD. — ASSERTION OF AN ENGLISH 
SAILOR. — STATEMENT OF PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. — DR. JEWETT's TES- 
TIMONY AS A MEDICINE. 

The variety, beauty, and harmony of the natural 
world are due to certain laws and conditions, and these 
latter are realized in proportion to the natural order and 
working of the first. So it is with man. He is placed 
in his appropriate sphere on the earth, subject to condi- 
tions and laws also, and without the recognition and 
observance of these he stands a jarring element in the 
moral world, never coming to answer the end of his 
creation. Could we expect the beautiful alternation of 
sunshine and shadow ; the warmth, freshness, and life of 
summer ; the silence, frost, and vigor of winter, with all 
the attendant advantages and pleasures of the different 
seasons, if the laws of the universe were to be deranged, 
and act contrary to their original design ? As well might 
we expect this as to suppose that man could retain his 
wonted activity and power, when every part of his body 
was under the influence of a demoralizing element, the 
direct tendency of which was to weaken, depress, and 
undermine the whole constitution. In the early his- 
tory of alcoholic indulgence, thousands violated the laws 
of their physical being, without being conscious of what 



36 INTEMPERANCE, 

they were doing. The people had not an intelligent 
conviction of the effect of the powerful stimulant upon 
the human system. They were not aware of the injury 
that was constantly being done by the unnatural inter- 
ference with the stomach, brain, and, indeed, every organ 
of the body. It is to be feared that even at this enlight- 
ened day there is a want of knowledge — at least of 
consideration — with reference to this phase of the 
matter. It involves the vitality of the whole system, 
and, that disturbed and weakened, man is shorn of his 
strength, and robbed of his power in every direction. 
"Alcohol," says an English physician of eminence, — 
and the same profession of our own country concur in 
the opinion, — "is primarily and essentially a lessener 
of the power of the nervous system." No one who has 
watched the gradual transformation of a man from his 
first cup in the morning to the perpetual and insatiable 
calls of a diseased and depraved appetite at the last, 
cannot fail to come to a like conclusion. Every step of 
the way betokens less and less of the power of resistance, 
— of nervous force and energy. Humanity is disfigured 
by thousands of living instances of this sad truth. All 
the dignity and beauty of the human form become wast- 
ed in them. The story is written on every line of their 
countenance, so that all the world may read as they 
pass. The brightness of the eye becomes dimmed ; the 
vacant look and the meaningless stare take the place 
of the thoughtful, inquiring gaze of intelligence. The 
face becomes bloated, the hands nerveless, the whole 
figure bent and powerless, the step unsteady ; and the 
whole man, like a stately ship that has been stranded 
upon the waters, is dismantled and useless. 

In order to prove the depressing nature of the stimu- 
lant, a certain physician subjected himself to its opera- 
tion, and thus writes concerning it : " Some years ago," 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 37 

lie says, "I purposely placed myself under the influence 
of alcohol. At eight o'clock P. M., and three and a 
half hours after partaking of a light tea, I took one 
ounce of rectified spirits of wine diluted with two ounces 
of water ; ten minutes afterwards I repeated the dose. 
The first perceptible effect was a sensation of warmth in 
the region of the stomach, followed immediately by a 
chilliness over the whole surface of the body, though 
the temperature in the room was at 68° Fahrenheit. 
This was speedily followed by reaction. The pulse indi- 
cated arterial excitement, and I breathed more rapidly 
than usual. As soon as the spirit rose to the brain, the 
cheeks became flushed, the eyes sparkled, and the tem- 
poral arteries throbbed. I then felt an irresistible ten- 
dency to talk, and became very loquacious. This was 
attended with an involuntary screwing of the mouth, 
a meaningless laughter, and an attempt to sing. In fact, 
I felt ' jolly.' But, together with this, there was an un- 
steadiness in my gait ; my legs felt very light. There 
was a giddiness in my head, and a strange confusion in 
my mental powers. The ability to fix the attention 
upon any subject was greatly impaired, but the imagi- 
nation was excited, and the fancy wild and restless. 
Ideas came and went, and I had no power to retain 
them. As I had not partaken of alcohol for many 
years, its action upon me was very striking and rapid, 
and soon became almost overpowering." The causes of 
these various symptoms he thus describes : " The sense 
of heat and warmth in the region of the stomach was 
undoubtedly owing to the acrid property of alcohol irri- 
tating the mucous membrane of that delicate organ. 
The sense of chilliness, extending over the whole surface 
of the body, was clearly due to an interference with the 
capillaries of the surface and the functions of the skin. 
But were not the exhilaration and jollity, the brightening 



38 INTEMPERANCE, 

of the eyes, and the glowing of the countenance, indica- 
tive of increased activity of the circulation in the brain ? 
If so, alcohol must be a stimulant. But I remember 
that this state was attended by other symptoms, indicat- 
ing not stimulation, but depression. There were light- 
ness of the head and of the legs, unsteadiness of gait 
and movement, with a certain bewilderment and obtuse- 
ness of the mental powers. I then saw that two of the 
properties of alcohol were concerned in producing these 
symptoms. The unsteadiness of gait and motion was 
to be attributed to the narcotic action of the drug just 
then coming into operation, depressing the cerebellum, 
which regulates voluntary motion, and also the cere- 
brum, the seat of the intellectual powers. The excite- 
ment was owing to the irritant property of alcohol 
affecting principally the base of the brain. The alcohol 
being rapidly absorbed from the stomach, and carried to 
the brain, its acrid properties at once come into play. 
The delicate tissues of the brain, at its base, are irri- 
tated, and blood flows to this part ; yet not sufficient at 
first to produce congestion, but only increased activity 
in the circulation. The region of the brain which is 
the seat of the reasoning and moral faculties, is the first 
to suffer, leaving the other part (the seat of the animal 
propensities) excited, while its functions are uncon- 
trolled by reason and conscience. After this, even the 
cerebellum becomes narcotized, and the whole nervous 
system oppressed. On the whole, we concluded that 
the symptoms we experienced were produced by the 
combined volatile, acrid, and narcotic properties of al- 
cohol." 

The practical working of it everywhere, and in all 
classes, demonstrates beyond a doubt that it is antago- 
nistic to the human constitution. Some have been pos- 
sessed with the idea that the use of it, as a drink, was 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 30 

a material aid in the process of digestion ; but a variety 
of experiments makes it plain that it renders it more dif- 
ficult. " A tonic is that which gives tone or firmness 
to an organ, and therefore is the opposite of that which, 
by exciting an organ to extra action, is certain to impair 
its tone, and therefore no such property can be ascribed 
to the alcoholic stimulant, so called. A philosopher of 
long ago contradicted the statement that this could have 
anything to do as an aid, and with his name are associ- 
ated the aphoristic remarks, " Water-drinkers have keen 
appetites," and that " Hunger is abated by a glass of 
wine." 

Some of the lovers of the article would fain assert 
that it is food in itself ; that it is extracted from the 
nourishing grains of the earth, and its final condition 
retains some of its nutritive qualities still ; but scientific 
analysis has exploded this theory, and common observa- 
tion has confirmed it. 

It is also urged that there is a benefit accruing from 
the warmth it gives to the body, thus giving it power to 
resist the cold ; but this, though a wide-spread, is still a 
mistaken apprehension. All experience of travellers in 
the coldest and severest climates prove, beyond a ques- 
tion, that it hides within itself none of this power. The 
voyager in the arctic regions bear unequivocal testimony 
to the injuriousness of spirits on this very account, when 
used to any extent in the high latitudes. It lowers the 
vital temperature, rather than increases it. A healthful 
flow and condition of the blood are the life of the system, 
and this becomes poisoned and diseased by the introd ac- 
tion of the fiery liquid, and there is no power of resist- 
ance in any direction. It is well nigh impossible to 
combat disease with this to contend with. Health- 
producing remedies cannot have their legitimate action 
when swept away by a current of impure blood. 



40 INTEMPERANCE, 

Says one, in writing upon these things, " As soon as 
the alcohol makes its way into the organism and diffuses 
through the fluids, so soon there is depression, so soon 
respiration falls, carbonic acid gas from respiration de- 
creases, and muscular strength, consciousness, and sensi- 
bility decline. Speaking honestly, I cannot admit the 
alcohols through any gate that might distinguish them 
as apart from other chemical bodies. I can no more 
accept them as foods than I can chloroform or ether. 
That they produce a temporary excitement is true ; but 
as their general action is quickly to reduce animal heat, 
I cannot see how they can supply animal force. To re- 
sort for force to alcohol is, to my mind, equivalent to the 
act of searching for the sun in subterranean gloom, until 
all is night." 

An English sailor asserts that "A Danish crew of 
sixty men, well supplied with provisions and these fiery 
waters, attempted to winter in Hudson's Bay ; but fifty- 
eight of them died before spring. An English crew of 
twenty-two men, destitute of these waters, and obliged 
to be almost constantly exposed to the cold, wintered in 
the same bay, and only two of them died." 

It has been said that, "If the human body were trans- 
parent, and the operations of its organs in sustaining 
life visible, every man might see that nature itself 
teaches that the drinking of alcohol cannot be contin- 
ued by a man without hastening his death." From the 
first formation of the habit a physical malady has com- 
menced, and nothing can control or avert it but an 
entire removal of that which induced the condition. 
The maddening thirst which it engenders has nothing 
natural about it. None of the natural and God- given 
provisions of the earth meet its demands, or assuage the 
intensity of its cravings. By the activity and arrange- 
ment of the organs of the human system, they have as 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 41 

much to do " as is consistent with permanently health- 
ful action, and with the longest continuance of human 
life, when men take nothing but suitable food and 
drink." 

Notwithstanding all that has been said of the physi- 
ological aspect of the case, and all that has been de- 
clared of its inevitable results in arresting vitality, a 
large number of physicians still deal largely in its use 
with their patients, professedly to secure just the oppo- 
posite effect. A distinguished chemist of our own 
country, Professor Silliman, pronounces it of the same 
nature as chloroform and ether ; and no one would 
think of giving either to a weak and sinking patient as 
a restorative. Some, who are in the habit of visiting the 
sick and the dying, declaim loudly against this practice 
of thus giving the stupefying potion, thus beclouding 
the intellect and obscuring the vision of those who 
should see and feel clearly and rationally. 

Dr. Jewett thus quotes a conversation on this point : 
" ' In what state of mind did the man die ? ' asked a 
gentleman of a Christian brother, who, the day previ- 
ous, had spent some time with a dying friend. ' I can- 
not tell you anything about his state of mind, wheth- 
er cheered by Christian hopes or otherwise,' said the 
friend ; ' for he was, for the last twenty-four hours of 
his life, completely intoxicated • by the large quantity 
of liquor given him, with a view to support him in his 
sinking condition ; and,' added the gentleman, who was 
a faithful and devoted Christian, and often in the 
chambers of the sick to speak words of comfort and 
Christian counsel to the suffering, 4 1 cannot, these days, 
get any comfort or do any good by visiting the sick and 
the dying, for a large portion of them die drunk. So 
much brandy is given them that the feeble brain reels 
under its influence, and they have no realizing sense of 
their condition.' " 



42 INTEMPERANCE, 

For all sorts of diseases, and all conditions of being, it 
is the universal and favorite prescription with some. 
Either from ignorance, or a want of due respect to 
hygienic laws, it is th§ same thing for heat or for cold, 
for the want of a thing or its superabundance. Says 
the above writer, " A good lady some time since asked 
me if I thought it likely that the drinking of ale or 
milk punch by a nursing mother would affect the child. 
' Of course, madam,' I replied. ' But why did you ask 
the question?' This was her answer: 'Why, air the 
while my daughter followed the prescription of her 
doctor, and drank milk-punch, we could scarcely keep 
the little one awake, even while dressing it. It slept 
nearly all the time, day and night.' ' Yes, madam,' I 
replied, c and it was -precisely the same sleep that the 
poor drunkard enjoys when we find him stretched by 
the fence or on the sidewalk.' " 

A great work will be done for the coming age if the 
false impressions of the nature and tendency of these 
things shall be corrected, and something be introduced 
that shall add to the power of the human system, in- 
stead of diminishing and wasting its force and energy. 
The physiological argument for the cessation of strong 
drink as a beverage is urgent and strong, to say nothing 
of its extensive use by the medical profession. The 
body is the temple of the soul, and for the sake of the 
sacred thing enshrined within it, Temperance should be 
written upon every portal, and made guardian of the 
sacred interests. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 43 



CHAPTER III. 

INTEMPERANCE AS RELATED TO HEART AND INTELLECT. 

RELATION OF MIND AND BODY. — KINGLY POWER OE INTELLECT. — 
DOOM OF TALENTED MEN. — QUEEN CITY STATESMEN. — THE WAN- 
DERING beggar. — powell's opinion. — epicurus. — hugh miller's 

TESTIMONY. — THE MORAL NATURE. — EFFECTS OF MORAL BLIGHT. 

"My mind to me a kingdom is," was an immortal 
strain of one of the poets ; and when he uttered the 
fervid exclamation, he paid a glowing tribute to the dis- 
tinctive feature of man — to that which raises him high 
above all the lower orders of creation, and makes him 
first, chiefest, and best among all the creations of the 
Infinite. Mind is the glory of man, and the wealth of 
a kingdom but faintly shadows forth its scope and des- 
tiny. Its aspirations are as high as heaven, and its ex- 
istence commensurate with that of the great Eternal 
himself. The body is the casket which holds the price- 
less thing, and no philosopher may be able to tell just 
how they are bound together — to tell precisely how the 
mysterious union, the subtle relations, and the hidden 
springs are adjusted ; but one thing is certain, they 
act and re-act, and the harmony or friction of one pro- 
duces corresponding conditions in the other. It there- 
fore follows that, if, from any cause whatever, the 
machinery of the body becomes powerless and inert, 
the higher faculties of the soul are retarded accordingly, 
hindered in their growth and development, and nar- 



44 INTEMPEBANCE, 

rowed down in their capacities for action in every way. 
If the body be constantly under those depressing influ- 
ences which are inseparably connected with the physio- 
logical conditions of intemperance, it cannot be a fit ally 
for the mind within. It cannot be a help to it. From 
the very necessity of its relation, it must affect its color- 
ing and character ; and if it does not build up, it will 
pull down ; if it does not elevate and soften, it will de- 
grade and harden. Who shall count the loss ? Who 
sum up the fearful aggregate of the mental waste that 
has come to the world by reason of this single habit 
alone ? Some of the brightest intellects the world has 
known have gone out in obscurity and darkness ; their 
light has been quenched in rayless, starless gloom, and 
they sleep in dishonored graves, living, if at all, in the 
memories and hearts of men, only as standing monu- 
ments to proclaim against the folly of excessive drink- 
ing. Names that might have graced the pages of history 
in every department of science, letters, and art, find no 
place there, because their rare endowments were slighted 
and perverted by their own reckless and unhallowed in- 
dulgence. 

We declaim against the folly and ignorance of the 
heathen, who gloat over the oracles of superstition, 
building their altars, and bringing their offerings to the 
strange gods of their own fancy ; but the countless dev- 
otees that flock to the shrine of Bacchus in our own civ- 
ilized land, and in our own enlightened age, is vastly 
more to be wondered at. To see men, who were made 
to reflect the image of the Divine, deliberately, wantonly 
throw away their birthright — men who are fully con- 
scious of their responsibility, duty, and destiny, to spurn 
it all, and pander to the cravings of a diseased appetite 
which they themselves have taken pains to create — is a 
greater sin than heathenish folly has yet committed. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 45 

Poets, with brilliant imagination, who might have 
sent out their thrilling melodies into the heart of a sad- 
dened world, dispelling many shadows and lifting many 
burdens, have foregone their privileges, and given them- 
selves to drink, which has become to them a demon, 
that has hushed all the sweet cadences of song, making 
themselves miserable and the world more sad. 

Historians have used the destroying stimulant, until 
the unsteadiness of their hands has compelled them to 
lay down the pen, which might have recorded the inci- 
dents of a passing age in such a manner as to insure the 
gratitude of their posterity in all coming time ; but their 
career has been cut short, and their influence brought 
to an end, because they had wound about themselves 
the galling chains of intemperance, and could not again 
be free. Men of clear perception and keen intellectual 
vigor are fitted to become philosophers, and there are 
many of these who might have enriched the world's 
thought, and shed light and knowledge upon the intri- 
cate problems of moral and mental working ; but they 
have failed, because their perceptions have been dimmed 
and their vigor diminished before the work was done. 

Statesmen have been lost to the country in this way, 
and an endless amount of talent crushed and lost sight 
of in the wreck and ruin involved in this the curse of 
our land. Intellect would hold kingly sway, if it might. 
The gigantic evil has crept into the councils of the na- 
tion ; and there, where wisdom, prudence, and modera- 
tion should rule and reign ; where the gravity, weight, 
and importance of arguments and decisions affect the 
interest and destinies of nations, — there have been 
found representatives of the people, singled out from all 
others for their superior ability, who yet were unfit to 
sit in judgment, because the faculties of their minds 
were deranged and impaired, their judgment warped 



46 INTEMPERANCE, 

and clouded, by unduly imbibing the exciting and poi- 
sonous draught. In the Queen City of the West is a 
young man of rare ability and promise. The people 
have not been slow in the recognition of his statesman- 
like qualities, and have conferred upon him some of the 
highest honors of the state. His clear understanding 
of legislative working, and his broad and comprehensive 
views of legislative demand, have won for him an envi- 
able distinction, and given him a large place in the appre- 
ciation of an intelligent public. Nothing stands between 
him and the high road to congressional fame but the 
habit of intemperance, which is coiling itself about him, 
and bids fair to hold him in its anaconda-like embrace. 
There are times when, for days together, he gives him- 
self up to the fatal indulgence, and all his powers of in- 
tellect are as though they were not. Without a revolu- 
tionary movement to hold him in check, his doom is 
sealed. His mind will fail, his intellect droop, and he is 
gone. And this is but a single instance of a countless 
list of similar cases. Several years since, a man called 
at the door of the writer, a wandering beggar. Forbid- 
ding in every aspect of his appearance, one felt an invol- 
untary shrinking from his presence. Aimless, homeless, 
and friendless, he went hither and thither, fulfilling 
none of the duties he owed to himself as an individual, 
and of course wholly regardless of those incumbent upon 
him as a citizen. Spurned from the doors of men, he 
hated and cursed them all. He added nothing to the 
stock of human happiness, and his life was a miserable 
failure with himself ; and yet that man was a graduate 
of one of the most prominent colleges of New England. 
He entered the institution with high hopes and flattering 
prospects. His friends fondly imagined that such fine 
talent must meet with more than ordinary success, and 
they looked to see him come out in the foremost ranks 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. ^ 47 

of the honored. But in an evil hour he yielded himself 
to the spell of the tempter, and he went down, until his 
once soaring intellect was gone, the dignity of his man- 
hood sacrificed, the strength of his character lost, and 
every trace of his noble ambition had vanished. The 
stories of faded intellects are sad ones. The annals of 
intemperance are full of them, and history, observation, 
and experience are confirming the mournful truth con- 
tinually. 

Says Frederick Powell, a noted English writer, — 
"The drunkard is a degraded man intellectually. 
Our Creator has endowed us with mental faculties that 
we may work out the higher purposes of life, and fulfil 
our grand destiny. He has endowed us with judgment 
and understanding, that we may inquire into the causes 
of things, and, by comparing one thing with another, 
arrive at the truth. He has also endowed us with im- 
agination and fancy, that we may, as it were, revel in a 
world of beauty of our own creation. He has endowed 
us with memory, that we may treasure up events and 
facts, and thus garnish our minds with mental wealth. 
Now, intemperance obscures the judgment and weakens 
the understanding, so that a man is unable to discover 
or to appreciate truth. It distorts the imagination, and 
fills the chambers of the soul with pictures obscene and 
foul. It perverts and paralyzes the memory, which, 
instead of treasuring up useful knowledge, becomes a 
receptacle for the dregs of knowledge, and thus only 
adds to .the soul's pollution. " 

Thus it is that degradation is stamped upon the high- 
est and best part of being, and the distinctive glory of 
man departs. There has been a prevalent notion among 
some that one could think and write better under the 
influence of an exciting stimulant ; but numberless tes- 
timonies of professional men go to corroborate the state- 



48 INTEMPERANCE, 

ment that, so far from being an aid, it seriously detracts 
from the working power of the brain. Almost all the 
great and continuous thinkers of every age have united 
in this one. conclusion, that alcoholic action is a sure and 
certain hinderance to intellectual progress. The philoso- 
phers of antiquity set a good example in this respect. 
Epicurus, the great founder of a philosophical system, 
urged temperance as the only passport to the enjoyments 
of life, and the only means of attaining to the perform- 
ance of its virtues. Over his gateway he kept the fol- 
lowing inscription : " Passenger ! here thou wilt find 
good entertainment ; it is here that pleasure is esteemed 
the sovereign good. The master will receive thee cour- 
teously ; but take note, thou must expect only a piece 
of cake and thy fill of water. Here hunger is not 
provoked, but satisfied ; thirst is not excited, but 
quenched." How different this from the many costly 
and elaborate entertainments of the rich at the present 
day, where wine and spirits fill the goblets of the fe aster 
and the feasted, and the sparkling mixture is quaffed, 
the exhilaration begins, and deeds and sayings are re- 
corded that bring them down to a level with the lowest 
circles, if it be they escape a positive disgrace to human- 
ity ! In Egypt wine was forbidden to both priest and 
king, because it was deemed prejudicial to the interests 
of clear-headed reason, and the welfare of the nation 
demanded the full exercise of this. 

Hugh Miller, so well known as one of Scotland's in- 
tellectual workers, thus speaks of an occasion when 
two glasses of whiskey were presented to him. " It 
was considerably too much for me," he says; " and 
when the party broke up, and I got home to my books, 
I found, as I opened the pages of my favorite author, 
the letters dancing before my eyes, and that I could no 
longer master the sense. The condition into which I 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 49 

had brought myself was, I felt, one of degradation. I 
had sunk by my own act, for the time, to a lower level 
of intelligence than that on which it was my privilege 
to be placed ; and, though the state could have been no 
very favorable one for forming a resolution, I in that 
hour determined that I would never again sacrifice my 
capacity of intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage, 
and with God's help I was enabled to hold by the deter- 
mination." 

Dr. Hitchcock, of Amherst College, has left on record 
his testimony to the fact that mental labor can be per- 
formed vastly better when one is free entirely from arti- 
ficial stimulus. While making a geological survey in 
Massachusetts, which involved peculiar and long-contin- 
ued exertion, he says, — 

" I was usually employed from sunrise until ten o'clock 
at night, with little interruption ; yet, during all my 
wanderings, I drank not one drop of alcohol, and I 
found myself more capable of exertion and fatigue than 
in former years, when I was in the habit of taking occa- 
sionally stimulating drinks." 

Mr. S. C. Hall,, a well-known author, says, — 

" I live by the labor of my brain, and can testify that, 
since I have become a teetotaler, I have had an increase 
of intellectual power, and can work three times longer 
than when I indulged, even moderately, in the use of 
strong drink." 

Statements might be multiplied, were it necessary ; 
but no one can look into the subject at all without 
being convinced of the truth of these things as a prin- 
ciple. Besides all these intellectual considerations, there 
is still another side to the picture. Man has a moral 
constitution. There is Conscience, that faithful monitor 
in the human breast. When we attempt to do wrong, 
Conscience says, " Beware ! and think of the divine law 



50 INTEMPERANCE, 

and its consequences." When we walk uprightly and do 
well, then we seem to hear her sweet voice crying, 
"Well done!" There is also that keen appreciation 
of the good, the beautiful, and the true, and those noble 
affections that so adorn and bless human nature. But 
intemperance hurls Conscience from her lofty seat, and 
her voice ceases, or sounds unheeded ; those noble senti- 
ments of rectitude and purity are weakened ; the kindly 
affections of the human breast become withered; whilst 
every evil passion and vile propensity are fostered into 
frightful development and ruinous exercise. Thus the 
man who drinks to excess, and gives up the key to the 
citadel of reason, is a lost man. It matters not how rich 
the endowments of his nature may be, he is poverty- 
stricken in every respect. 

" The great and essential evil of intemperance," says 
Dr. Channing, " is the voluntary extinction of reason. 
The great evil is inward, or spiritual. The intemperate 
man divests himself for a time of his rational and moral 
nature, casts from himself self-consciousness and self- 
command, brings on frenzy, and, by repetition of this 
insanity, prostrates more and more his rational and 
moral powers. He sins immediately and directly against 
the rational nature, that divine principle which distin- 
guishes between truth and falsehood, between right and 
wrong action, which distinguishes man from the brute. 
This is the essence of the vice, what constitutes its 
peculiar guilt and woe, and what should particularly 
impress and awake those who are laboring for its sup- 
pression. All the other evils are light compared with 
this, and almost all flow from this ; and it is right, it is 
to be desired, that all other evils should be joined with 
and follow this. It is to be desired, when a man lifts a 
suicidal arm against his higher life, when he quenches 
reason and conscience, that he and all others should re- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 51 

ceive solemn, startling warning of the greatness of his 
guilt ; that terrible outward calamities should bear wit- 
ness to the inward ruin which he is working ; that the 
handwriting of judgment and woe on his countenance, 
form, and whole condition should declare what a fearful 
thing it is for a man, God's rational offspring, to re- 
nounce his reason and become a brute.' ' 

A man with a blighted moral nature is a sad specta- 
cle ; no sadder sight in all the world. Every avenue to 
good is closed. However fine his sensibilities may have 
been, they become blunted. Arguments are powerless. 
He will not be convinced. Tears, sighs, entreaties, are 
without avail. The most affectionate pleadings are as 
nothing. The offices of love are all unheeded, and there 
is but little hope that salvation will come to such a 
one. Surely it is enough to excite the pitying tears of 
even the angels in heaven, if they are permitted to take 
a look into the ways of the sons of men. To see crea- 
tures so gifted of Heaven, capable of rising ever nearer 
and nearer to the one great central idea of all perfec- 
tion, yet abandon all aspiration and effort, and effectu- 
ally bar the door against all progress, — surely they 
must count it an anomaly in the universe, and force the 
exclamation, Verily it is a fallen world. 



52 



CHAPTER IV. 

Social and Religious Outlook. 

NO PART OF BEING UNTOUCHED. — HOME, THE HEART OP THE SOCIAL 
WORLD. THE YOUNG MAN. CASE IN WESTERN NEW YORK. POV- 
ERTY NOT THE GREATEST CURSE. — LOSS TO SOCIETY. — BLIGHT 
UPON THOSE FACULTIES WHICH BUILD UP RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 

There is no one isolated stand-point where we may 
take our position, and with one sweeping glance take in 
the whole effect of the mighty evil we are considering. 
The complicated nature of mankind forbids this. They 
who have traced its influence upon the physical part of 
being, and seen how surely and effectually it degrades 
the moral and intellectual, will also be prepared to be- 
hold the completion of the work in its social and religious 
aspect. Could it be seen that there was any part of the 
man that could escape the ravages of the destroyer, 
that some little corner of the being somewhere would 
preserve its natural conditions, and remain the same, 
we might say there was some redeeming feature in the 
case ; but it is apparent, beyond a doubt, that nothing 
is left untouched by the blighting, withering influence 
of intemperate indulgence. There were harmony and 
adaptation at the beginning, and it was meant they 
should be preserved. To ignore the requisite conditions 
is to blast the whole scheme. The divinely-appointed 
institutions of the world, for the happiness of mankind, 
involve the necessity of a social nature ; and the perfec- 
tion and development of this are clearly connected with 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 53 

mind and heart. With the powers of these weakened 
and blunted, there is no more capacity for true social 
enjoyment. There is no more blessed boon giyen to 
man for his earthly condition than home. There is no 
one provision which so completely meets the varied 
wants of his nature as this ; and he who allows the ten- 
drils of his heart to spread the farthest, and take the 
deepest, strongest hold of this, is the man who is most 
secure against all the temptations and evils of a siren 
world. It is here that all the social affections bud and 
blossom. It is here that their richest and sweetest fra- 
grance is shed. " Here," it is said, " is the heart of the 
social world." Men are what their homes are;, chil- 
dren what their homes make them. 

It is the place where all the social qualities of the 
nature should be unfolded, cherished, and enjoyed ; a 
place where the intermingling of thought and affection 
should be constantly making one happier and better ; 
and if allowed its practical and legitimate working, it 
will tend to the realization of this end. It is true, those 
who are wont to quaff the wine when it is red, base 
their arguments for its use strongly upon its social qual- 
ities and influence ; but who does not know that it 
destroys all the finer feelings of humanity, and makes 
the once cheerful and pleasant spirit of the household 
its most dreaded foe ? 

The demon of drink has been permitted to enter thou- 
sands of homes in our land, and wherever it has gone, 
it has hushed every song of joy, killed out every hope, 
and brought only poverty, wretchedness, and every 
form of misery in its train. 

"We need no other evidence of its transforming power 
of the social affections, than to see what it hath wrought 
here. It banishes domestic peace, for there is nothing 
left for it to feed upon. The sharpest agonies and the 



54 INTEMPERANCE, 

keenest pangs are associated with this phase of the ques- 
tion. The lives of wives, mothers, and sisters are cru- 
elly embittered all the way through, because husband, 
brother, and son are all lost — are meaningless terms, 
when their hearts have been made callous, and their 
social nature robbed of its beauty. Says the eloquent 
Dr. Kitchell, " Much of this is concealed from the 
public gaze as long as concealment is possible. Back 
of the visible ravages of intemperance, and deeper than 
all these, there lies a field of devastation which has 
never been fully explored, and can never be more than 
partially reported. It is the wasted realm of the social 
affections, the violated sanctuary of domestic peace." 
" It is here that the higher and inner life of woman is 
marred and tortured, her most sacred and cherished 
affections crushed and blighted. These are private sor- 
rows, that her most intimate confidant must not know, 
so anxious is she to sustain the good character of those 
so dear to her. But from this inner world of suppressed 
wretchedness there will occasionally burst forth to the 
ear of human pity a piercing cry of those who writhe 
under the slow torments of a desolate heart and the 
overflow of misery. It is merely what inadvertently 
escapes through chasms violently rent open, and tells 
sadly of a sea of anguish that is stifled forever in its 
secret recesses. The bursting hearts of mothers for their 
ruined sons ; of wives from whose life all joy and hope, 
all love and tenderness, have been blotted out ; of daugh- 
ters' shame, crushed and doomed to penury and dis- 
grace — could we look on all these grief-stricken females, 
some of whom have been well off, happy, and respected, 
now doomed to brutality and want, each with her own 
peculiar history of woe, we should ask no further wit- 
ness to the heinous guilt of the rum traffic, or the right- 
eousness of law against the destroyer of all these." He 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 55 

who was designed to be the friend and protector of 
woman is in no wise fitted for his place when he is 
under the debasing influence of strong drink. The ob- 
servation of every one will furnish examples of those 
who have dethroned the dearest, friends of their hearts, 
and sundered every social tie, rather than forego the 
so-called pleasures of the exhilarating beverage. 

It is not many years since a young man in Massachu- 
setts went to the grave of a drunkard in the very vigor 
of his youth. Nurtured in the bosom of an affectionate 
family, he was the object of fond solicitude, and bright 
hopes were entertained of his future success in life. In 
an evil hour he yielded to the fascinations of the cup, 
and when it became apparent that the habit was taking 
fast hold of him, an earnest effort was made to save him. 
But parental counsel, sisterly entreaty, and friendly ad- 
vice were nothing. If he stayed in his career long enough 
for conscience to whisper of the wickedness of his course, 
he speedily silenced the voice of the monitor, by imbib- 
ing the poison still more deeply. His father thought to 
expostulate with him once more, and promised to set 
him up in business and provide handsomely for his start- 
ing, if he would seek to free himself from the habit that 
was upon him, and which would surely end in his de- 
struction. But the susceptibility and ambition of even 
that youthful spirit were gone, and he replied to the 
touching appeal, with heartless indifference, " I had 
rather have my drink ; " and the broken-hearted father 
followed his son to a drunkard's grave at the early age 
of twenty-three. Love and kindness, that are so po- 
tent under other circumstances, have but little effect 
here. The innocent and eloquent pleadings of a child 
that would soften and subdue the most obdurate heart 
in a man that was sober, make no impression here, for 
all that distinguishes man is scorched, burned out, and 



56 INTEMPEKANCE, 

all the distinctive attributes of his nature are dead, and 
he stands like a withered tree, only awaiting its time to 
fall. — An instance that came under the observation of 
the writer, in- Western New York, illustrates the case 
in hand ; and yet it is .but one of the many that are 
acted over and over again every day in every part of 
the land. Ralph W was a young man of prepossess- 
ing appearance and marked ability. Affable and cour- 
teous in his manner to an unusual extent, brilliant and 
gay in his conversation, sparkling in wit and repartee, 
he was the life of every company, and no circle was con- 
sidered complete without him, in the community where 
he lived.- He paid his attentions to an estimable and 
worthy young lady, and when it was known that the 
engagement was ratified that bound them together, she 
was congratulated as having won a rare prize. Up to 
this time he had only sipped a little now and then to 
please his gay acquaintances; but the insidious habit 
worked on insidiously until it became a confirmed thing. 
Meantime he was married and settled down in a quiet 
and attractive home. In the course of time a son and 
daughter were added to his family, and he still main- 
tained his reputation as a kind and tender husband, a 
thoughtful and loving father; but all the while the 
appetite for strong drink had been gaining ground, until 
it overtopped all other considerations, and it became 
known that he was frequently intoxicated. For a long 
time his social popularity covered a multitude of sins, 
and his family sought in every way to shield him from 
public disgrace ; but there is no way for these things 
when the man becomes thoroughly wedded to his cups. 
Dead to all feelings of shame himself, he cares for noth- 
ing but how he may quell the maddening thirst. Yield- 
ing to this, he went reeling through the streets, carrying 
untold misery and anxiety into* his home, breaking the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 57 

hearts that otherwise would have been as dear to him 
as life. — Sometimes reason is dethroned by causes alto- 
gether beyond human control, and persons turn against 
their dearest and best friends, and it is sad ; but it is far 
less aggravating in its conditions than where people 
deliberately and wilfully pervert their higher nature, 
and render themselves incapable of exercising ordinary 
thought or affection. Even woman has buried all her 
gentler qualities in this remorseless grave. It is a hu- 
miliating fact that she has laid aside every endearing 
virtue of wife and mother, sister and daughter, and gone 
into the depths of degradation which the indulgence 
will inevitably produce. In country places this may 
not be seen or known; but the miserable hovels, the 
wretched abodes of squalor and want in all our large 
cities, te.ll the mournful tale, and are the unmistakable 
signs of what' rum will do. Crowds of neglected and 
forsaken children show how utterly dead to every social 
instinct and affection those have become who should 
have been their guardians and protectors. So true is 
it that all that is good will die out of the heart, in either 
man or woman who gives up to the debasing influence 
of strong drink. There have been those who have been 
ready to sing to the praises of the " flowing bowl," but 
no one was ever enticed to drink of the foaming, spar- 
kling mixture but found, all too late, that a ven- 
omous serpent lurked at the bottom, which poisoned the 
life of his manhood, and gave warrant of his death at 
the beginning. Says a writer already quoted, " Intem- 
perance is to be pitied and abhorred for its own sake 
much more than for its outward consequences. These 
consequences owe their chief bitterness to their criminal 
source. We speak of the misery which the drunkard 
carries into his family. But take away his own brutal- 
ity, and how lightened would be those miseries ! We 



58 INTEMPEEANCE, 

talk of his wife and children in rags. Let the rags 
continue, but suppose them to be the effects of an inno- 
cent cause. Suppose the drunkard to have been a vir- 
tuous husband, and an affectionate father, and that 
sickness, not vice, has brought his family thus low. 
Suppose his wife and children bound to him by a strong 
love, which a life of labor for their support, and of un- 
wearied kindness, has awakened ; suppose them to know 
that his toils for their welfare had broken down his 
frame ; suppose him able to say, " We are poor in this 
world's goods, but rich in' affection and religious trust. 
I am going from you, but I leave you to the Father of 
the fatherless, and to the widow's God." Suppose this, 
and how changed those rags ! How changed those cold, 
naked rooms! The heart's warmth can do much to 
withstand the winter's cold ; and there is hope, there is 
honor, in this virtuous indigence. What breaks the 
heart of the drunkard's wife ? It is not that he is poor, 
but that he is a drunkard. Instead of that bloated face, 
now distorted with passion, now robbed of every gleam 
of intelligence, if the wife could look on an affectionate 
countenance, which had for years been the interpreter of 
a well-principled mind and faithful heart, what an over- 
whelming load would be lifted from her ! It is a hus- 
band whose touch is polluting, whose infirmities are the 
witnesses of his guilt, who has blighted all her hopes, 
who has proved false to the vows which made her his ; 
it is such a husband who makes home a hell, not one 
whom toil and disease have cast on the care of wife and 
children. Drunkenness brings poverty, but this is not 
the greatest curse. Could the sweet influences of love 
and trust be restored, thousands would take all the in- 
conveniences and privations of this without a murmur. 
Were any new disease to come into the land, that had 
anything like the power, that showed anything like the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 59 

deadly working of intemperance, how would it be 
dreaded ! How its nature would be 'studied, and rem- 
edies be sought to lessen its power, and ameliorate the 
condition of its victims ! But hardly a conceivable dis- 
ease could maintain its perpetuity like this, or be so 
wide-spread and devastating in its effects; and yet it 
goes on, annually slaying its thousands and tens of 
thousands, while only a few are trying to arouse the 
slumbering people. 

The man is not only lost to himself and his family, 
but he is lost to society. He is fitted for none of the 
duties which devolve upon him in this respect. The 
high privileges of citizenship, like every other good, are 
disregarded and forgotten. Could the blight and waste 
now produced by drinking be reversed, and the refresh- 
ing, invigorating, and life-giving principles of temper- 
ance have full sway, what a tide of blessing would be 
poured upon the social institutions of our country I 
The day of millennial glory would come in a thousand 
times sooner. 

There is woe enough written upon the nature of man, 
could we stop here ; but there is another shading to the 
picture, before it is complete.- The religious element 
of man's being gives him claim to kinship with the Eter- 
nal. The spiritual within him is traced by the finger 
of a divine Architect, and when the superscription be- 
came visible and manifest, it read, " Thou art immortal; 
thy being shall be co-extensive with the Infinite, and 
thou shalt reign when the dust of ages has ceased to 
be." With this dignity stamped upon his nature, man 
stood alone, a thinking, rational, immortal creature ; the 
highest, best, and crowning glory of all God's creations. 
More of the divine perfections were to be reflected from 
his being than from any other. It was meant that he 
should illustrate God's ideal of good more fully than all 



60 INTEMPERANCE, 

the world beside. So strongly did this desire enter into 
his plan, that when man turned aside from his high des- 
tiny, and by wilful transgression forfeited his original 
birthright, the costliest sacrifice that heaven . or earth 
could devise was instituted to restore him to his lost pos- 
sibilities. Redemption wrought out new phases, and re- 
instated mankind in a position of glorious opportunity, 
where all the capabilities and demands of his threefold 
nature might be fully met and exercised. These were 
as broad as the world, and as vast as eternity ; but there 
was no limit or discouragement in the work as long as 
the given faculties were allowed their legitimate play, 
and made to fulfil their appropriate ends. It is not a 
light thing to have a soul in charge. When God sends 
men into the world, he sends them with this gift, and 
he says, " Take care of it for me, and I will give thee thy 
wages." " Thou shalt live and reign with me if thou 
do it well. All thine earnest efforts in this direction 
I will crown with success, and own at the last." A 
work like this, it is clear, demands the fullest play of 
the best faculties. If a man stupefies himself with drink, 
or anything else, he cannot think; and if thought is 
quenched, he cannot reason ; and if reason do not act, 
there can be no wise judgment ; and without this there 
is no decision, which, in its turn, fails to bring any real 
achievement; so that it may truly be said, that "intem- 
perance is the mightiest force that clogs the progress of 
all good," in whatever phase it be viewed, social, moral, 
intellectual, or religious.. 

In estimating the ravages of alcohol, another thus 
sums up the results : — 

" It has taken the glory of health from the cheek, 
and placed there the reddish hue of the wine-cup. 

" It has taken the lustre from the eye, and made it 
dim and bloodshot. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 61 

" It has taken beauty and comeliness from the face, 
and left it ill-shapen and bloated. 

"It has taken strength from > the limbs, and made 
them weak and tottering. 

" It has taken firmness and elasticity from the steps, 
and made them faltering and treacherous. 

" It has taken vitality from the blood, and filled it 
with poison and seeds of disease and death. 

"It has taken the impress of manhood from off the 
face, and left the marks of -sensuality and brutishness. 

" It has bribed the tongue to madness and cursing. 

"It has turned the hands from deeds of usefulness, 
to become instruments of brutality and murder. 

"It has broken the ties of friendship, and planted 
seeds of enmity. 

" It has made a kind, indulgent father a brute, a ty- 
rant, and a murderer. 

" It has transformed the loving mother into a very 
fiend of brutish incarnation; " and besides all this that 
happens to the individual and family, there is yet the 
broader and national view, which will be considered as 
we proceed. 



62 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER V. 

Origin of the Evil. 

MODERATE DRINKING. — EFFECT OF A* SINGLE GLASS. — SUPPOSITION OF 

ITS LIFE-LONG INFLUENCE. MODERATION INVOLVES THE GREATER 

DANGER. — THE MEETING. — THE PAUPER'S STORY. — LITTLE BY 
LITTLE. 

While enumerating and considering the tremendous 
consequences of so destructive a habit, we are con- 
strained to ask, Where is the beginning of these things? 
How is it that it is started and fostered, until it gains 
such relentless hold, that there is no escape from it ? 
No more important question can be propounded at the 
present time, if it be asked with a view of finding a 
remedy that shall meet the emergencies of the case, and 
check the prevalence of a habit that is becoming so uni- 
versal and prevalent. Learned men may discourse long 
and eloquently upon the origin of the races ; but it is 
not half as important as to discover the application of 
means that shall free them from chains which keep their 
bodies and souls in slavish bondage. Scientific men 
will brave any amount of hardship and fatigue ; will 
encounter the dangers of the most inhospitable regions 
and the fiercest climates, while following the obscure 
windings of some stream that may, perhaps, lead them 
to its hidden source, and all to satisfy the curiosity of an 
eager and speculative people ; but there is yet a mighti- 
er problem to solve than these, and they who give the 
best practical solution may uplift, and perchance save, a 
nation. 




THE BEGINNING AND THE END. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 65 

The beginning of a thing is sometimes disproportion- 
ate to the ends accomplished ; yet in everything there 
is a starting-point, around which clusters the main fea- 
ture of interest, and with which is associated all that 
comes of it. Almost everything in nature is small at 
the first. It is the bud, the leaf, the stem, the branch, 
the trunk, the unfolding and developing process all the 
way ; and a similar law controls and determines the 
conditions and habits of men. It is emphatically true 
with the habit of drinking ; it begins with a little, — 
just a little now and then, — and he who takes it never 
dreams of going beyond the bounds of moderation. 
Mankind are wont to glory in their power of resistance, 
and they spurn the warning with indignation that possi- 
bly that " little " may weaken that power. A moderate 
indulgence can do them no harm, they think , and yet it 
is the way in which all drunkards are made. This 
first stage of intoxication is considered by some to be its 
worst phase. A physician of the present times, who 
has written upon " moderate drinking," as the " worst 
phase of intemperance," says that the most fearful con- 
sequences of this state is, " that it deprives a man of 
that calm reflection and sagacious foresight so essential 
to the correct performance of his duties in ever}^ relation 
of life. If the privation of reason is onty partial, then 
the victim is not the same person he would be if in a 
natural condition , and a very large proportion of our 
public men are stunted and distorted in this way. The 
passions and emotions are more easily aroused, and are 
less under the control of the will. 

u From this it will be perceived no man is safe after 
having drank one small glass. He is a changed man, 
and will say and do things that he would not say or do 
unaffected by liquor. He has parted with a portion 
of his discretion, which is among the higher attributes 



66 INTEMPERANCE, 

of his manhood. He has lost some of his reason. While 
his passions are more readily provoked, he has become 
weakened in the power of self-control. He is not only 
more inclined to do wrong, but is less liable to restrain 
himself from wrong doing. He has, therefore, under- 
gone a very serious transformation ; and if not ready for 
an evil deed, he is certainly more liable to be led into 
vice and crime. Such is the effect of the most moder- 
ate use of alcoholic beverages," and "in order to obtain 
a clear comprehension of the injury to the brain and 
nervous system, which is caused by one drink of any 
kind of liquor containing alcohol, we have only to sup- 
pose the effect or fuddle, however slight, to be as last- 
ing as life itself; that Nature was not kind enough to 
relieve its victim, in due time, of the maudlin and per- 
plexing burden; that there was no balm in Gilead for 
such a case, and no means under heaven by which he 
could become a sober man again. Could we conceive 
of a greater affliction, short of the entire wreck of 
reason, than a mortal thus doomed to carry in his blood 
and in his brain that one portion of alcohol, during all 
the days and nights of his earthly existence ? Would 
not such a wretch cross the seas, and wander to the 
uttermost parts of the earth for his relief? Would he 
not sigh continually for deliverance, and long for sobri- 
ety or death ? and if the intoxication of one glass would 
be such a horrible calamity, in case it was permanent 
and hopeless, it must be equally bad while it lasts." 

People declaim loudly against the lower and baser 
forms of intoxication ; but the same writer continues his 
statement by saying, that while these have been cen- 
sured and paraded, " the evils of moderate tippling, of 
themselves, and apart from all tendency to excess, have 
never been adequately depicted." " Extreme drunken- 
ness," he says, " with all its pains and horrors, is a 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 67 

condition that carries with it a salutary disgust and a 
wholesome warning ; it is, therefore, a blessed thing, 
compared with moderate drinking, in every light in 
which it can be viewed. It is a blessing to the drinker, 
because it punishes him for the violation of his moral 
and physical nature. It makes him stupid, and unable 
to do the mischief he would be more likely to do in a 
moderate state of intoxication. It presents a striking 
lesson to all, of some of the miseries inseparable from 
the drink fashion. The lowest class of drunkards would 
be ashamed to drink, if they were not sustained by 
the example of their more respectable and moderate 
associates ; they would not be seen at a place where 
none but their own tribe were admitted ; the liquor 
traffic is kept up by moderate drinkers ; no human 
being could be found base enough to keep a den for the 
exclusive accommodation of sots. The sots are relieved 
of self-disgust by mixing themselves up with moderate 
drinkers as much as possible. If there could be no tip- 
pling without vulgar excess ; if every man that uses 
alcohol as a drink would imbibe a sufficient quantity to 
make him beastly drunk every time he tasted it; if 
there were but two classes in the country — helpless 
sots and consistent teetotalers, our condition would be 
vastly better than it is now, and it would continue to 
improve rapidly. The sober class would increase and 
the sots diminish, until this greatest of all evils would 
disappear. The second stage of drunkenness may be 
a sorer affliction to the individual and to his family; but 
the greatest calamities and the saddest disasters come 
from moderate, and not from immoderate intoxication. 
A man with a moderate quantity of alcohol in his brain 
will often be super-serviceable and over-officious in the 
transaction of business, and will be very apt to blunder ; 
and the blunder may, owing to his position and the na- 



68 INT-EMPEBANCJE, 

ture of his duties, be of such, a character as to destroy the 
lives, property, and happiness of hundreds of his fellow- 
beings ; whereas, if more deeply intoxicated, he would 
not attempt anything of the kind, and if he did he 
would be arrested in his temerity by others. His trust 
would be forfeited, his position lost, and his power to 
Tex and trouble extensively would be gone The evil, 
of course, will be greatest where it affects the greatest 
and most influential minds. Such, if topers, must neces- 
sarily be moderate, because they move in a sphere from 
which the poor sot is excluded, and have charge of 
interests with which he is not permitted to meddle ; and 
it is among these, the master spirits and controllers of 
human affairs, that alcohol does the most harm." 

Could an effectual check be given to this habit of so- 
called moderation, would men of respectable standing 
cease to begin with the glass of occasional cheer, it 
would be comparatively easy to arrest this vice of the 
age. This has been called the " devil's railroad, with a 
steep downward grade to the depot of destruction;" 
and it is certain that the multitudes who throng the 
highway of intemperance, or, at least, most of them, 
took their first steps very moderately. The first glass, 
in thousands of instances, has been taken hesitatingly 
and shrinkingly ; but the sense of shame and the power 
of resistance have been less with the second, and still 
less with the third, and so on until there is no more 
trace of pride or honor left. 

In a volume compiled by E. C. Delevan, of New York, 
he narrates the following thrilling scene ; and as it illus- 
trates in a forcible manner the present phase of the sub- 
ject, we give the story as he records it. The people of a 
certain town were gathered together to discuss the merits 
of the license question, and decide whether to authorize 
any one to deal out the article among them or not. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 69 

44 The town had suffered greatly from the sale and use 
of intoxicating liquors. The leading influences were 
opposed to total abstinence. At the meeting, the cler- 
gyman, a deacon, and the physician were present, and 
were all in favor of continuing the custom of license, — 
all in favor of permitting a few men of high moral char- 
acter to sell alcohol, — for they all agreed in the opin- 
ion that alcohol in moderation, when used as a beverage, 
was a good creature of God ; and also, to restrict the 
sale or moderate use was an unjust interference with 
human liberty, and a reflection upon the benevolence 
of the Almighty. They all united in the belief that, in 
the use of alcohol as a beverage, excess alone was to be 
avoided. The feeling all appeared to be one way, when 
a single teetotaler, who was present by accident, but 
who had been a former resident of the town, begged 
leave to differ from the speakers who had preceded him. 
He entered into a history of the village from its early 
settlement ; he called the attention of the assembly to 
the desolation moderate drinking had brought upon 
families and individuals ; he pointed to the poorhouse, 
the prison-house, and the graveyard for its numerous 
victims ; he urged the people, by every consideration of 
mercy, to let down the flood-gates, and prevent, as far 
as possible, the continued desolation of families by the 
moderate use of alcohol. But all would not do. The 
argument of the clergyman, the deacon, and the physi- 
cian, backed by station, learning, and influence, were 
too much for the single teetotaler. No one arose to 
continue the discussion, or support him, and the presi- 
dent of the meeting was about to put the question, 
when all at once there arose from one corner of the 
room a miserable female. She was thinly clad, and her 
appearance indicated the utmost wretchedness, and that 
her mortal career was almost closed. After a moment 
5 



70 INTEMPERANCE, 

of silence, and all eyes being fixed upon her, she 
stretched her attenuated form to its utmost height, then 
her long arms to their greatest length, and raising her 
.voice to a shrill pitch, she called upon all to look at 
her. 

" ' Yes,' she said, ' look upon me, and then hear me. 
All that the last speaker has said relative to moderate 
drinking as being the father of all drunkenness, is all 
true. All practice, all experience declares its truth. 
All drinking of alcoholic poison as a beverage, in health, 
is excess. Look upon me. You all know me, or once did. 
You all know I was once the mistress of the best farm 
in this town. You all know, too, I once had one of the 
best, the most devoted of husbands. You all know I 
had five noble-hearted, industrious boys. Where are 
they now ? Doctor, where are they now ? You all 
know. You all know they lie in a row, side by side, in 
yonder churchyard ; all, every one of them, filling the 
drunkard's grave ! They were all taught to believe 
that moderate drinking was safe, — excess alone ought 
to be avoided ; and they never acknowledged excess. They 
quoted you, and you, and you — pointing with her shred 
of "a finger to the priest, deacon, and doctor — as author- 
ity. They thought themselves safe under such teachers. 
But I saw the gradual change coming over my family 
and prospects with dismay and horror ; I felt we were 
all to be overwhelmed in one common ruin. I tried to 
ward off the blow ; I tried to break the spell — the 
delusive spell — in which the idea of the benefits of 
moderate drinking had involved my husband and sons. 
I begged, I prayed : but the odds were greatly against 
me. The priest said the poison that was destroying my 
husband and boys was a good creature of God ; the 
deacon (who sits under the pulpit there, and who took 
our farm to pay his rum bills) sold them the poison ; the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 71 

physician said that a little was good, and excess ought 
to be avoided. My poor husband and my dear boys fell 
into the snare, and, one after another, were conveyed 
to the dishonored grave of the drunkard. Now look at 
me again. You probably see me for the last time ; my 
sand has almost run. I have dragged my exhausted 
frame from my present abode, your poorliouse, to warn 
you all — to warn you, deacon ! — to warn you, false 
teacher of God's word,' — and with her arms high 
flung, and her tall form stretched to its utmost, and her 
voice raised to an unearthly pitch, she exclaimed, — 
4 1 shall soon stand before the judgment seat of God ; 
I shall meet you there, ye false guides, and be a swift 
witness against you all.' 

" The miserable female vanished ; a dead silence per- 
vaded the assembly : the priest, deacon, and physician 
hung their heads. The president of the meeting put 
the question, ' Shall we have any more licenses to sell 
alcoholic poisons, to be drank as a beverage ? ' The 
response was unanimous, ' No ! ' and such would be the 
verdict of all Christendom, could they unitedly listen to 
similar tales of suffering and woe, that are written, if 
not on the visible page, on the sensitive tablets of the 
human heart, in letters of fire." These stories have 
almost invariably the same beginning. It is little by 
little. A few sands washed from the base of a strong 
dike may seem as nothing ; but a little more, and this 
repeated, may send the rushing waters on beyond con- 
trol ; and so it is a glass here, and a glass there, that cre- 
ates the remorseless craving which knows no bounds. 
But who offers that glass ? and what is it ? Let" the 
next chapter tell. 



72 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER VI. 

What is the Stimulant 

CLEOPATRA. — THE FIRST STEP. — SOCIAL PARTY. — NEW YEAR'S CUS- 
TOM. — THE CREEK INDIAN. — ANECDOTE OF HENRY WILSON. — CHEM- 
ICAL TESTS. — PORT AND MADEIRA, SO CALLED. — WINE DEALER'S 
CONFESSION. — PROF. BUTLER'S TESTIMONY. — HORACE GREELEY'S. 
VOICE FROM PERSIA. — DR. HOLLAND. — CALIFORNIAN IDEAS. — BIBLE 
STAND-POINT. 

It is said of the beautiful, accomplished, and queenly- 
Cleopatra that she dissolved a precious gem in a glass, 
and drank it, at one of her royal banquets, that she 
might show her proud retinue of attendants there was 
nothing too dear and costly to minister to the pleasure 
and contribute to the aggrandizement of one of her rank 
and position. Strange and foolish as this may seem, it 
is, nevertheless, less strange and less foolish than the 
conduct of those who press the glass to their lips, into 
which they throw ambition, honor, reputation, and every 
good that makes life a joy and a blessing. This is to 
throw away every possibility and privilege of manhood, 
and make the whole history a long and significant blank 
which should be a record of virtuous and worthy deeds. 
It is none too easy to build up a high and noble charac- 
ter, .amid the difficulties and allurements of a wayward 
world,, if the best conditions of being are regarded ; but 
it is utterly impossible when one is under the dominion 
of decidedly adverse influences. To trace these to their 
source, in connection with this subject, is to find them 
hid in the bosom of the family. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 73 

" Tell me," said a gentleman to one who had become 
a miserable, wretched inebriate, in the days of compara- 
tive youth, — " tell me, where and what was it that first 
led you into this course of intemperance ? " 

" It was wine at my father's table, sir," replied the 
doomed and unhappy man. " Before I left the shelter 
of the paternal roof, I had learned to love the drink that 
has been my ruin. The first drop that ever passed nry 
lips was handed to me by my now broken-hearted 
mother." 

Doubtless many would make a similar confession, if 
pressed with the same inquiry. There are a great many 
homes in the land where a choice collection of spirits is 
considered an indispensable part of their domestic econ- 
omy. The amount of these determines, in great meas- 
ure, their wealth and standing. They form a part of 
the regular furnishing of the table, and the strength and 
qualities of these various compounds are the subject of 
enthusiastic comment among the honored guests of the 
household. The younger and unsuspecting members 
grow familiar with the thing, and the practice may not 
be associated in their minds with anything that is low. 
This is the beginning of the downward course of many. 
The habitual use of cider and wine at the table has led 
thousands into the open sea of intemperance. They go 
out into the broader theatre of public life, where temp- 
tation is thicker and fiercer, — where companions of 
kindred tastes and habits are only too glad to excuse 
themselves by seducing others, — and they fall an easy 
prey to the tempter. The social party presents its at- 
tractions, and there, too, sparkling wine is considered an 
indispensable requisite for the occasion. The ruby cup 
goes the rounds, and the unnatural light is kindled in 
the eye, an unwonted ardor is imparted to conversation, 
and the general hilarity betokens the power of that 



74 INTEMPERANCE, 

which is upon them. These things become rooted in 
the social system until they are a prevalent evil. The 
customs of fashionable society stamp them with a dignity 
and importance which the majority come to feel they 
must imitate, or forfeit their claims to respectable stand- 
ing, not dreaming that the imitation threatens those 
claims more disastrously than the neglect of them could 
possibly do. 

It has been customary, in years past, for the fashion- 
able circles of the city, and of the country too, to open 
their doors on the first day of the new year, and extend 
the hospitalities of their homes to their numerous friends. 
Men from every profession turn out to do honor to the 
reception of many a distinguished and generous hostess ; 
and congratulations are exchanged over the dainty wine- 
cup very politely, and sometimes, it may be, heartily. 
This is repeated again and again through the day, here 
and there a little, until they seek their rooms at night 
flushed, excited, dispirited beings, more inclined to 
drown their discomfort in a fresh draught than to seek 
to free themselves from it by a total refrain. In a recent, 
discussion of a certain committee among the officials 
at Washington, one of the honored disputants thus 
spoke : — 

" I heard last night a statement from one of the Creek 
Indians. There the United States has a law with a 
severe penalty for selling liquor to the Indians. This 
man, well educated, of five and thirty years of age, 
stated that in all their community he scarcely saw a 
drunken man ; that once in a while, as they went down 
on the line of the railroad, one would be tempted, but, 
as a general rule, there was no part of their whole terri- 
tory where a drop of intoxicating liquor could be found ; 
and that, if a man brought in a keg or bottle of it, and 
it could be found, it was immediately destroyed. And 




YOUNG LADY OFFERING HER LOVER WINE. 




THE RESULT. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 77 

this man stood up as a specimen of a savage who had 
grown up without the use of intoxicating drinks, for he 
said, — 

" ' To this hour, there has never a drop of alcoholic 
drink passed my lips, and I never was really tempted 
but once in my life; and that was in. the city of New 
York, three years ago, when our delegation was taken 
there. We were invited to a gentleman's house and into 
his parlor, and the lady of the house passed round a 
waiter with wine-glasses, and came to me and offered 
me a glass of wine, and I for the moment was tempted.' 
It was a lady in an elegant house in New York. 'But,' 
said he, ' I thanked her, and said I would prefer a glass 
of water.' " 

Had all our young men the moral courage of the In- 
dian, there would be little to fear , but most of them 
are unwilling to offend the fair lady who so graciously 
offers it, though their judgment condemns the custom, 
and they know it is tightening the chains that bind them 
to a fearful habit. Sad and humiliating as the confes- 
sion may be, it is too true that ladies are responsible for 
many a poor drunkard's beginning. They do it in this 
way, under the cover of politeness and the sanction of 
fashion. Young ladies and gentlemen mingle together 
in rides and various amusements, and, rather than wound 
the sensitive gallantry of their attendants, the girls will 
sip of the Avine, and thus strengthen the propensity in 
their brothers and friends. 

A party of college students invited some young ladies 
to take a ride to a neighboring town for an evening's 
enjoyment. The contents of the flowing bowl were 
deemed necessary to promote it. They all drank of it, 
and before they could reach home their jollity attracted 
the attention and merited the rebuke of everv lover of 
sobriety in their way. 



78 INTEMPERANCE, 

" O thou invisible spirit of wine ! if thou hast no 
name to be known by, let us call thee — Devil." So 
sang Shakspeare long ago ; and let any one take his 
stand-point from American social life and manners, he 
would utter the same exclamation with equal empha- 
sis now. The beverage has a large place at the tables 
of the wealthy, and no entertainment can be given in 
honor of distinguished personages or occasions but the 
toasts and sentiments must find their point in the cheery 
wine. It speaks but poorly for the moral courage of 
men that they will not frown upon the custom, when 
they know it to be injurious to the highest interests of 
those concerned. There is only now and then one who 
is strong enough to stand up, and openly adhere to his 
convictions of right, when the temptations of these flat- 
tering circumstances surround, him. Henry Wilson, of 
Massachusetts, and the Vice-President of the nation, was 
such a man, and the people honor him for the integrity 
of his principles, and the manliness and decision of his 
course at the beginning. Twenty years ago he went to 
Washington with a petition to Congress from the people 
of his native state. Although comparatively young, his 
rising fame had singled him out as one eminently fitted 
for the important commission. While there, he received 
an invitation to dine with John Quincy Adams. His 
name had long been associated with the highest offices 
in the country, and it was no small honor to the newly- 
fledged statesman to be counted worthy of a place 
among the established dignitaries of the land. He had 
been poor, and was then a mechanic in moderate circum- 
stances, and altogether unused to the ways and appear- 
ances of official dignity and style, and his name and 
place he had yet to win. Great men sat at the table — 
the greatest in the land ; and should not the youthful 
aspirant for political distinction imitate the example of 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 79 

his superiors ? The trying moment came when Mr. 
Adams extended to him the invitation, — 

" Will you drink a glass of wine with me, sir ? " 

Temperance was one of the acknowledged virtues of 
the young man. He had planted himself firmly against 
everything that could intoxicate. But the eyes of many 
greater than he were upon him, and would it be best to 
risk his reputation upon so small a thing as the refusal 
of a glass of wine ? It was not easy to decline such a 
request from his venerable host. Those about him, older 
and in some respects much wiser than himself, drank, and 
it all conspired to produce embarrassment ; but amid his 
blushes and hesitation his manhood asserted itself, and 
he replied, — 

" Sir, I never take wine." 

It has been said that Massachusetts heard that answer, 
and set him down for a trusty servant forever after. 
Whatever influence the act may have had upon the 
brilliant assemblage at the time, it has found its place 
among the incidents of history, and made his name, to- 
gether with the subsequent consistency of his conduct 
in this direction, a power to the cause of temperance 
everywhere. 

There are those who think that wine is the least ob- 
jectionable of all the so-called exhilarating drinks ; that 
it is the purest, the most healthful and innocent bever- 
age, aside from that which nature itself has provided, 
that can be had. They feel comparatively safe in its 
indulgence. But who does not know that, in these days 
of modern avarice, there is scarcely anything left that is 
pure ? Addison told us long ago of philosophers who 
were daily employed in the transmutation of liquors, 
and, "by the power of magical drugs and incantations, 
raising, under the streets of London, the choicest prod- 
ucts of the hills and valleys of France, squeezing claret 



80 INTEMPERANCE, 

out of the sloe, and drawing champagne out of an 
apple." The present system of adulteration leaves 
nothing untouched. Quoting from one having author- 
ity, he says,— 

" Who does not know that nine tenths of the wine 
Consumed is but brandy, or something worse, under an- 
other name ? In France and other European countries 
are extensive establishments for the manufacture of all 
the choicest varieties of wines ; and you may as well 
know that, when you have paid a round price for wines 
imported direct from the wine-growing districts and in 
original packages, you are yet most likely paying for 
what never smelt a grape. I do not say," he contin- 
ues, " that there are no pure wines ; but I say that adul- 
teration is the law, and purity the exception, and that 
wines are so skilfully ' doctored ' with well-selected 
drugs as to escape even chemical tests as to their qual- 
ity. An able writer goes so far as to affirm that ' wine 
has become a myth, a shadow, a very Eurydice of life. 
There is no such thing, we verily believe, as honest grape- 
juice ivine remaining ; nothing but a vile compound of 
poisonous drugs and impurely obtained alcohol. And all 
our beautiful Anacreontics are merely fables, like the 
rest; for wine hath died out from the world, and the 
laboratory is now the vineyard.'' " 

It is said " that there is perhaps nearly a hundred 
times as much Port wine (so called from Oporto) sold 
and drank as can be made from all the grapes raised in 
the region of Oporto, including the whole Douro Val- 
ley." And another writer declares that, "if the Douro 
River were a thousand miles long, instead of only sixty, 
it could not furnish grapes enough to make all this ocean 
of c Port' wine. The whole world of fashionable topers, 
invalids, and imbeciles are drinking wine made out of 
the little handful of grapes grown on the banks of a 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 81 

small creek in Portugal ! The miracle of feeding five 
thousand souls from 'five loaves and a few small fishes,' " 
he says, "is as nothing compared to this." 

This is only one feature of the case, only one branch 
of the trade, and that foreign. But our own country is 
pronounced the largest " wine-growing district " in the 
world ! It is asserted that " here are furnished a million 
times more baskets of champagne (with exact imitation 
of foreign brands) than are put up' of the pure juice in 
all the champagne districts of Europe ! By passing the 
oil of whiskey through carbon, a Madeira is made, at a 
profit of five hundred per cent., which few can tell from 
the genuine." Madeira grows thirty thousand barrels of 
wine yearly, while America alone boasts of the annual 
consumption of fifty thousand barrels of the same arti- 
cle. These wines are produced at a very trifling cost by 
the use of neutral spirits, or even with "whiskey, vine- 
gar, sulphuric acid, beet-root, alum, lead, logwood, pot- 
ash, cider, copperas, and the like." Of these and other 
wines, the city of New York manufactures to the value 
of eight million dollars every year , and these .go out to 
be employed largely in the mere formation of intemper-r 
ate habits, that by and by must and will have something 
stronger for their support. 

" It is a notorious fact," says one of the daily journals, 
" that even the California champagnes have been driven 
from the market by '.doctored wines,' or have themselves 
been ' doctored ' to meet the popular demand." 

A wine dealer, in the bitterness of his penitential sor- 
row, made the acknowledgment, on his death-bed, that 
" he had often seen his customers wasting away around 
him, poisoned by that he had meted out to them ; and 
that same ivine, which was the cause of their decline, was 
often prescribed by their physicians as -a means of their 
recovery." 



82 INTEMPERANCE, 

There is a lamentable ignorance among the mass of 
the people upon this whole subject. If, by any enlight- 
ening process whatever, the scales can be made to fall 
from their eyes, a brighter and better condition of things 
will be inaugurated, unless men persistently take the 
position which compels us to say, "None are so blind as 
those that will not see." 

The voice of antiquity is clear and distinct upon this 
question. Far back in the history of the early ages, long 
before the birth of Christ, a Chinese emperor declared, 
u in a solemn assembly of states, that wine must be for- 
bidden to his subjects, because it was the fruitful source 
of evil, and all manner of social disturbance." In the 
year 600, Mohammed prohibited the use of wine among 
his followers, "because it was the prolific cause of vice 
and crime." And Plato approved " the Carthaginian 
law that no sort of wine be drunk in the camp, nor any- 
thing save water," by reason of its inevitable tendency 
to produce drunkenness and insubordination. The laws 
of Sparta were made rigid on this point, and the most 
stringent measures resorted to, to put an end to the 
drinking of wine. " Slaves were made drunk, and ex- 
hibited in this condition to youth, in order to inspire them 
with abhorrence of this filthy vice." 

It is to be remembered that all this comes down to us 
from centuries when the people were vastly better fitted 
to give decided issue upon the power of wine to promote 
or hinder temperance, for to them even the art of distil- 
lation was unknown. 

There has been a widely-spread notion that native 
wine is not intoxicating in its nature ; that in wine- 
producing countries, where it was used as a common 
and almost exclusive beverage, intemperance was com- 
paratively unknown. But the testimony of modern 
travellers has nearly exploded the theory. If it be 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 83 

not so apparent to the American as lie is passing through 
these countries, it is because these are shut out from the 
higher and better conditioned class ; and in all the pub- 
lic means of conveyance, and in all the circumstances in 
which he is naturally thrown, he does not come in con- 
tact with this phase of life. Prof. Butler lived several 
years in Europe, both in city and country, and was 
therefore better qualified to give a correct judgment of 
the matter than those who formed their impressions 
from a hasty transit through the region. 

" We have heard Americans assert," he says, " that 
there is no drunkenness in any country where wine 
takes the place of stronger liquors. Now, we have 
sifted this matter thoroughly, both in Italy and Switzer- 
land, and are bound to deny the truth of this statement. 
Why is it, then, that so little drunkenness is seen by 
strangers ? Because Italian laborers rarely begin their 
potations until the day's work is over. They carouse 
from about nightfall until midnight, when, money spent 
or credit exhausted, they reel home, and the cries and 
groans of wives and children soon tell of the fury and 
brutality which mark the drunkard the world over. 
Thinking it probable that brandy did most of the mis- 
chief, I inquired as to this point. In every case, my 
questions caused surprise, and the answers were always 
the same : 4 No, no ! it is wine — always wine.' " 

Rev. E. S. Lacy, of San Francisco, spent several 
months in Switzerland, and thus writes : — 

" I have just spent six months in a country place, 
where the people do nothing but work in the vineyards ; 
where wine is cheap and pure, and far more the bever- 
age of the laboring classes than water ; where none 
think of making a dinner without a bottle of wine ; 
where all the scenery is of the most elevating and enno- 
bling character. Here more intoxication was obvious than 



84 INTEMPERANCE, 

in any other place it ivas ever my lot to live in. On holi- 
days and festal occasions, you might suppose all the 
male population drunk, so great are the numbers in this 
deranged and beastly condition. On Sunday afternoons 
young men go shouting along the streets. Intelligent^ 
Germans inform me that this is the great social evil of 
their country, a place where wine, if not very cheap, is 
never adulterated, and where great quantities of it are 
drunk," 

Louis Philippe, the King of France, in an interview 
with one of our own countrymen in 1838, described the 
intemperance of his people as very great, and declared 
that wine was its producing cause. 

The Duke of Orleans made the statement to Mr. 
Delavan, the person referred to, and also said that, in 
those districts where the most wine was made, there 
was the greatest wretchedness, and the most frequent 
appeals to government for aid.'* 

When Horace Greeley was travelling in France, he 
made these observations from her gay capital : — 

" Wine will intoxicate — does intoxicate. That there 
are confirmed drunkards in Paris and throughout France 
is notorious and undeniable. You can hardly open a 
French newspaper that does not contain some account 
of a robbery perpetrated upon some person stupefied by 
over-drinking ; a police case growing out of a quarrel 
over the wine-cup ; or a culprit, when asked to say why 
the sentence of the law should not be pronounced 
against him, rej^ly, ' I was drunk when this happened,*" 
and know nothing of the matter.' That journe3*men 
are commonly less fitted for and less inclined to work 
on Monday than on other days of the week, is as noto- 
rious here as it ever was in any rum-drinking city that 
could be named." 

The testimony of other travellers, equally prominent 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 85 

and reliable, all concur in establishing the same conclu- 
sion. We give but one more observation with reference 
to the French people, and that is from the pen of 
Charles Dickens : — 

" The wine-shops are the colleges and chapels of the 
poor in France. History, morals, politics, jurisprudence, 
and literature, in iniquitous forms, are all taught in these 
colleges and chapels, where professors of evil continually 
deliver those lessons, and where hymns are sung nightly 
to the demons of demoralization. In these haunts of 
the poor, theft is taught as the morality of property, 
falsehood as speech, and assassination as the justice of 
the people. It is in the wine shop the cabman is taught 
to think it heroic to shoot the middle-class man who dis- 
putes his fare. It is in the wine shop the workman is 
taught to admire the man who stabs his faithless mis- 
tress. It is in the wine shop the doom is pronounced of 
the employer who lowers the pay of the employed. The 
wine shops breed, in a physical atmosphere of malaria 
and a moral pestilence of envy and vengeance, the men 
of crime and revolution. Hunger is proverbially a bad 
counsellor, but drink is worse." 

A voice comes to us from Persian lands, in the testi- 
mony of those who have lived and labored there, and 
are familiar with all the customs and manners of the 
native population. Mr. Labaree, who has long been a 
missionary in that land, writes to this country after 
this manner : — 

" If I had any sentiments favorable to the moderate 
use of wine when I left America, my observations dur- 
ing the seven years I have resided in this paradise of 
vineyards have convinced me that the principle of total 
abstinence is the only safeguard against the great social 
and religious evils that rlow from tne practice of wine 
drinking." 



86 INTEMPERANCE, 

Describing the scenes between vintage and Lent, lie 
says, — 

" As you might suppose, drunkenness in its various 
grades becomes too common to excite surprise. Priests 
apologize with the greatest coolness for irregularity of 
conduct by stating that they were, at the time, under 
the influence of wine. 

" Carnival week, preceding Lent, is especially noted 
for the amount of wine consumed. The devotees of the 
bowl now give themselves up to the greatest excesses. 
Midnight orgies, low songs, and boisterous quarrels re- 
sound from almost every street. Multitudes, at other 
times moderate drinkers, are drawn almost irresistibly 
into this vortex of drunken revelry. A fellow-mission^ 
ary tells me that on visiting, at the carnival season, last 
year, a large Christian village of eight or nine hundred 
inhabitants, he found, on inquiry, that from two to three 
hundred were drunk, and that some one was in similar 
condition in ail but about twenty houses out of one hun- 
dred and thirty." And he adds," There is scarcely a 
community to be found where the blighting influences 
of intemperance are not seen in families distressed and 
ruined, property squandered, character destroyed, and 
lives lost." 

Dr. Holland sums up the whole thing when he writes, 
from the sunny land of the vine, his convictions upon 
this important subject. These ideas have been embod- 
ied in various forms into the temperance literature of 
the country ; but they furnish so strong a declaration 
against the utility of domestic wine, and its power to 
diminish the evil of intemperance, we give it a place 
here. 

" There is no question," he says, " that the people 
would be better, healthier, and happier, and much more 
prosperous, if there were not a vineyard in the canton. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 87 

We have been told in America — and I fully believed it — 
that, if a people could be supplied with a cheap wine, they 
would not get drunk ; that the natural desire for some 
sort of stimulant would be gratified in a way that would 
be not only harmless to morals, but conducive to health. 
I am thoroughly undeceived. The people drink their 
cheap white wine here to drunkenness. A boozier set 
than hang around the multitudinous cafe's here it would 
be hard to find in any American city ; even here they 
enjoy the license of the Maine law. The grand differ- 
ence in the drunkenness of an American and Swiss city 
is found in the fact that the man who has wine in him is 
good-natured, and the man who is equally charged with 
whiskey is a demon. There is no murdering, no fight- 
ing, no wrangling. The excitement is worked off in 
singing, shouting, and all sorts of insane jabber. Then 
the steady, old white-wine topers come into blossom. 
If you can imagine a cauliflower of the color of the 
ordinary red cabbage, you can achieve a very adequate 
conception of faces that are not uncommon in all this 
wine-growing region. So this question is settled in my 
mind. Cheap wine is not the cure of intemperance. 
The people here are just as intemperate as they are in 
America ; and, what is more, there is no public senti- 
ment that checks intemperance in the least. The wine 
is fed freely to children, and by all classes is regarded as 
a perfectly legitimate drink. Failing to find the solu- 
tion of the temperance question in the Maine law, fail- 
ing to perceive it in the various modes and movements 
of reform, I, with many others, have looked with hope 
to find it in a cheap and comparatively harmless wine ; 
but, for one, I can look in this direction hopefully no 
longer. I firmly believe that the wines of Switzerland 
are of no use, except to keep out whiskey, and that the 
advantages of the wine over the whiskey are not very 
6 



88 INTEMPERANCE, 

obvious. It is the testimony of the best men in Switzer- 
land — those who have the highest good of the people 
at heart — that the increased growth of the grape has 
been steadily and correspondingly attended by the in- 
crease of drunkenness. They lament the planting of a . 
new vineyard as we at home regret the opening of a new 
grog shop. They expect no good of it to anybody. 
They know, and deeply feel, that the whole wine-pro- 
ducing enterprise is charged with degradation for their 
country. A large amount of land in this canton of 
Vaud is surrendered to the cultivation of the grape ; 
and, as the wine of Switzerland is never heard of out 
of Switzerland, it is plain that it is all drunk here. In- 
deed, I have been assured that the wine produced in 
this canton is drunk mainly in the canton itself. Now, 
from Villeneuve to Morges — a distance of twenty-five 
miles, as I guess somewhat at random — the entire lake- 
side, averaging half a mile in width, is a vineyard. One 
can say, with literal truth, that, throughout the entire 
territory I describe to you, no crop but grapes is grown. 
For the last three weeks, the whole working population, 
men and women, have been in these vineyards gathering 
the crop. The teams are employed in transporting the 
immensely large casks of new wine from the presses to 
the cellars of their owners, to the vaults of the owners 
who have purchased it, and to the railroad depot, for 
transportation to the storehouses of speculators in other 
quarters. 

" There is an endeavor on the part of these people to 
throw a romantic interest around their vintage. The 
casks go through the streets with gay bouquets of flow- 
ers in their bung-holes ; but, from what I have seen here 
of the effect of wine, the show is all a sorry farce. 

" I was told, before leaving America, that I should be 
obliged to drink wine or beer in Europe. One good 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 89 

clerical friend assured me that I could not get through 
Great Britain safely without drinking beer. As I did not 
like beer, the prospect was not pleasant. Indeed, I felt 
about as badly discouraged as Brigham Young declares 
he did when the duty of polygamy was made known to 
him by heavenly revelation. Well, I did not drink beer, 
and I got through Great Britain very comfortably in- 
deed. None of my party drank beer, and all survived, 
not only, but improved, upon cold water — the terribly 
poisonous water of Great Britain ! In Paris I took the 
ordinary red wine. In Switzerland I continued it with 
great moderation, until I was thoroughly satisfied that 
every glass I drank damaged not only my health, but my 
comfort. Now I drink no wine at all ; and that member 
of my party who has drank nothing but water from the 
time of leaving America, has experienced not one parti- 
cle of inconvenience from the practice. We have all 
concluded that wine-drinking in Europe is just as un- 
necessary as in America, and that there was never a 
greater mistake than the supposition that alcohol in any 
form is necessary as a daily beverage for any man or 
woman." 

What is true with reference to the subject is equally 
true in our own land. A voice comes to us from the 
sunny climes of the grape in our own country, testifying 
to the same thing. At a state convention of the friends 
of temperance in San Francisco, in 1866, the following 
resolution was adopted : — 

" Resolved, That we consider the project of banishing 
intemperance from California by introducing the general 
use of wine as a beverage, to be a delusion and a snare. 
Even were it possible to exclude ardent spirits, and sub- 
stitute the fermented juice of the grape, there is no 
reason to look for any other results than followed in the 
ages of antiquity, when wine was the only intoxicating 



90 INTEMPERANCE, 

beverage, and when the drunkenness of wine-drinking 
nations provoked the wrath of God, and the denuncia- 
tions of Holy Writ." 

Then and there they denounced the manufacture of 
wine " as destructive to the highest political and reli- 
gious interests of the commonwealth." 

Said the Rev. Dr. Stone, — 

" I had entertained a sort of hope that the manufac- 
ture of pure wines, and their introduction into general 
use, would crowd out the gross and strong liquors, and 
diminish intemperance. / am now fully convinced that 
this hope was groundless and delusive. It is in evidence 
that full two thirds of all the wine is converted by the 
manufacturers into brandy. It also appears that in the 
wine-growing districts intemperance is on the increase, 
extending even to the youth of both sexes. TJiere is no 
ivay but to take ground against the production of grapes 
for all such manufacture. This touches a large and 
growing pecuniary interest, and will provoke strenuous 
opposition ; but we must save this state, if it can be done, 
from such investment of capital and labor, and from the 
unavoidable residt of drunkenness, profligacy, and crime." 

An editor of a California paper thus writes : — 

" Through some parts of these mountains, as well as 
in the valleys, there is arising one species of production 
fraught with dire evil to the producers and the country. 
It is that of wine-making. Already wine has become as 
cheap as milk, and is as freely drank, till many once 
sober men are growing habitually intoxicated. In one 
wine-growing neighborhood, we are told that young 
girls seventeen years of age reeled through the streets 
under the intoxication of pure California wine. Men 
once of worth now are, through wine, lost to society, 
and becoming a fear and disgrace to their families. One 
leading man enumerated to us five of his acquaintances 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 91 

who, once noble men, are now to be called drunkards 
through wine. Many of the temperance men who fol- 
lowed the wine-growing delusion are now returning to 
their proper senses. We know of some whose sons are 
drunkards ; of others who have fallen victims themselves 
to the curse of appetite. We are not romancing in these 
statements ; we know whereof we affirm, and can name 
not a few who were forced to choose between the alter- 
natives of a drunken family or an abandonment of the 
wine business. One of these related to us personally 
this fact in these words : 4 Myself and my whole family 
were fast becoming drunkards upon our wine ; and the 
daily quantity drunk by each increased so rapidly as to 
threaten to consume the profits of the business.' ' 

Notwithstanding this and a host of similar testimony, 
there are those who yet fail to be convinced, and fly 
from it all to the shadow of Holy Writ, thinking that 
there they are shielded from the attacks of the would- 
be temperance reformer, who would rob them, as they 
think, of their cherished pleasures. Although they be 
confronted with the declaration there that "wine is a 
mocker," they pass that by, to linger at the marriage 
feast in Cana, whence an incontestable argument in 
their favor is supposed to be drawn. If miraculous 
agency was deemed worthy to supply the deficiency on 
this cheerful occasion by the highest of all authority, 
then was it not unquestionably a good thing ? There 
are elaborate and learned discussions by men of reputa- 
tion and talent to prove that the wines used on this and 
other solemn occasions were not fermented wines at all ; 
that, when Christ used it as a significant emblem at the 
last touching memorial with his disciples, it was the 
simple " fruit of the vine," without any intoxicating ele- 
ment at all. We propose not to enlarge here upon this 
topic. There is something in the idea that " the word 



•92 INTEMPERANCE, 

' wine ' occurs in the Bible two hundred and sixty-one 
times. One hundred and twenty-one times it contains 
warnings ; seventy-one times it contains warnings and 
reproofs ; twelve times it denounces it as poisonous and 
venomous ; and five times it totally prohibits it." It 
sums up the whole thing in one broad and sweeping 
assertion — " No drunkard shall enter the kingdom of 
heaven." 

We have dwelt thus long upon wine and its influence 
because a love for the weaker leads to the stronger — 
because here the first downward step is so often taken 
in the path that leads, in the end, to disaster and ruin. 
Dash the wine-cup, and you save multitudes. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 93 



CHAPTER VII. 
Ale and Beer. 

MANKIND SEEK SELF-GRATIFICATION. — WILL BEER INTOXICATE ? — 
" LOST OR STOLEN." — BEER OF GERMAN ORIGIN. — THE BEER-LOV- 
ING NEIGHBOR. — " THE LITTLE THING." BEER BILL IN ENGLAND. — 

DUKE OF WELLINGTON. — FRUIT OF INDULGENCE. — BEER-BREWERS' 
CONVICTION. 

Mankind have long been seeking " the philosopher's 
stone," that should turn everything into "gold." They 
have been trying to find something that would make ordi- 
nary hard things in their way lighter, easier, and more 
fanciful ; something that would meet all their wants and 
passions, their desires and appetites, so as to cause less 
trouble to conscience, and preserve them from the haunt- 
ing conviction that they were sacrificing their manhood 
to a forbidden indulgence. So, after this manner, they 
have been trying to persuade themselves that the milder 
form of stimulant might minister to their craving neces- 
sities, and yet keep them in the path of safety, and ex- 
pose them to less censure ; for before the faculties are 
benumbed by artificial means, the good opinion of fellow- 
men is a strong incentive to action. It is to be doubted 
if man experiences keener pangs than those which come 
to him in the first knowledge that he has forfeited the 
esteem of those about him by the open committal of that 
which they denounce. For fear of this the man who 
loves stimulating drink will hesitate, will carefully and 
cautiously enter the secret place, and drop his head and 



94 INTEMPERANCE, 

avert his gaze if he thinks there is any danger of recog- 
nition from those whom he would have remain in igno- 
rance of his deed. For this reason, men who would 
not be seen drinking a glass of brandy will unhesitat- 
ingly take the foaming beer, and think they have done 
a light thing ; but observation, as well as the conclusions 
of science, fully demonstrate the folly of those who im- 
agine that ale and beer are among the wholesome and 
inoffensive drinks. Like many other inconsistent ques- 
tioners, they go to work to prove the question, " Wil] 
lager beer intoxicate?" when experience, observation, 
and testimony have decided it beyond controversy. "As 
well ask me if two and two make four," says one. It is 
true that the percentage of alcohol in this is smaller, by 
far, than in most other compositions of the kind, and it 
takes larger quantities to insure intoxication ; but never- 
theless the spirit is there, and does its work. A short 
time since the following striking paragraph appeared in 
print : — 

" Lost ok Stolen. 

" Through the agency of villains, under the disguise 
of friends, the undersigned has lost within the few past 
years the following items of property, viz. : — 

An unencumbered estate ; 

A vigorous constitution ; . 

A fair moral character ; 

A good standing in society ; 

An active, healthful conscience. 
Also, at the same time, or soon after, the affection of 
a wife, of children and friends. The miscreants who 
have thus robbed me are members of one family. Their 
names are Rum, Gin, Brandy, Wine, and Ale. Another 
base fellow, a recent emigrant from Germany, named 
Lager, it is supposed had a hand in the robbery, as he is 
much in the company of the above-named brotherhood 
of thieves, and appears to be of kindred character. The 
villains are still lurking in the city. Whoever will ap- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 95 

prehend them and bring the culprits to justice shall 
receive the thanks of those most interested, and a cup 
of cold water." 

This beer is a drink of German origin, the saloon for 
its vending a distinguishing characteristic of their coun- 
try. They are fitted up in fine style, and the proprietors 
allure a crowd of customers by the attractions of music, 
by spreading tables with tempting luxuries, and provid- 
ing for every form of gay festivity. Hither the people 
resort continually, and on the Sabbath, men, women, and 
children flock to these scenes of hilarity, and may be 
seen, each with their glass of beer, in the various stages 
of excitement which the drink is calculated to produce. 
Among the things that have come to us through the in- 
flueuce of German immigration is the re-production of 
this same custom. Wherever a German settlement is 
found, the sign of beer is prominent. They take the 
brewery with them wherever they go, and it is heralded 
on the corners of all the streets. There they act over 
and over again the scenes of their fatherland ■ and they 
who know anything about it know that the end thereof 
is riot and confusion. A beer-drinker is nothing less 
than an intemperate man. His appearance indicates the 
same marks of dissipation as others. There is the same 
bloated and disfigured aspect ; the look of the face de- 
generates into the same sensual expression as is written 
there by stronger mixtures. It may be slower in doing 
its work, but it is, nevertheless, essentially the same. 
Because of its slow working, many mistake its character 
altogether, and the keg of beer finds its way, regularly, 
into many families that would scorn the idea of bearing 
anything else but a reputation for temperance. Those 
in the lower walks of life, who drink largely and con- 
stantly, exhibit the same disposition that the intoxicated 
man always does. A neighbor of the writer was addicted 



96 INTEMPERANCE, 

to the habit of drinking, and it was almost always con- 
fined to lager beer. The contents of a beer cask would 
suffice but for a day or two, and at the times of these 
inordinate indulgences, he was in the lowest depths of 
intoxication. Morose in his family, when in his sober 
moments he was remarkably kind; neglectful of his 
business, when otherwise he was industrious — and alto- 
gether brutish and insensible. The glass of ale and the 
draught of beer, prescribed for health, and drank until 
it is considered a daily necessity, have kindled an irre- 
sistible appetite with a great many — an appetite the 
insatiable cravings of which could not be met without 
something far stronger ; and that stronger potion has 
unmanned the individual and destroyed the man. A 
clergyman once remarked, " One of the smartest 3 r oung 
men we ever raised in our place fell out of the midst of 
his college course a drunkard. Why ? He took lager 
beer. Rank, pride, education, elevated society, ambi- 
tion, and religious influences, — every motive that could 
lead him to refrain, — held back the young man ; " " and 
who," he says, " shall measure the power of that passion 
for drink which ruined him ? " 

" A glass of ale is a ' little thing,' a ' small affair,' ' 
says John B. Gough, that mighty worker in the cause 
of temperance ; " but I care not what it is holds a man, 
so long as he is held by it." " Some men," he says, " play 
with this ' little thing ' until they are in the position of 
the poor fellow outside the lines, when he called out, 
"I've got a prisoner." " Bring him in." " He won't 
come." "Well, then, you had better come in without 
him." " He won't let me." 

A certain man had a son who became so addicted to 
the frequent use of the cup, that it threatened to hold 
him fast in its slavish chains ; for there is that beneath 
the foaming surface that is like unto a binding fetter to 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 99 

the body and soul of every man who imbibes so freely. 
Awaking to the consciousness of his condition, he re- 
solved to begin the work of reformation, and for eighteen 
months he adhered to his resolution, and his friends 
exulted in the hope that he was safe. Happening one 
day to be at a public house, where he saw a clergyman 
call for a glass of beer, the sleeping demon within him 
awoke, and he said to himself, "If he can take a glass 
of beer, why cannot I ? " With that he did take, and 
the flood-gates were open — the power of resistance was 
gone. He took another, and another, until hope and 
effort, pride and ambition, died out, and he became a mis- 
erable sot, and his death was the death of the drunkard. 
The same arguments are urged with reference to 
beer that have been urged in connection with wine. 
Many have supposed that it would lighten the ravages 
of intemperance ; that it would diminish its sad results 
a thousand fold, because its quality and nature were less 
baneful. The English Parliament enacted what was 
termed " the beer bill," on this assumption, in 1830. 
Some of the strongest minds of the realm supported the 
measure, with the avowed conviction that it would fur- 
nish the people with a "wholesome beverage," and 
" preserve their morals from contamination." After the 
passage of the bill, the Duke of Wellington declared it 
to be "a greater achievement than any of his military 
victories." But the result of its action was sad enough. 
In less than a year the strongest supporters of the meas- 
ure were surprised by the sudden and general demoral- 
ization produced." Among others, the Rev. Sydney Smith 
had looked to the passing of the bill as one of great 
importance — an omen for good; but only two weeks 
after it came into effect, he wrote, " The new beer bill 
has begun its operations. Everybody is drunk. Those 
who are not singing are sprawliny. The sovereign peo- 



100 INTEMPERANCE, 

pie are in a beastly state." Another writer declares, 
that, " from his own knowledge he could positively assert 
that these beer shops had made many who were pre- 
viously sober and industrious now drunkards, and many 
mothers had also become tipplers." 

Another argument of the beer supporters is, that its 
evolution from nourishing grains make it eminently con- 
ducive in repairing the waste of the human system, but 
Professor Chandler, of Columbia College, in subjecting 
the whole to a rigid chemical analysis, has dissipated this 
theory, and shown that the nutritive qualities of its dis- 
tilled condition are meagre indeed. 

So, in whatever light we look at it, from whatever 
point of observation we consider it, there remains noth- 
ing favorable to the adoption of beer as a favorite and 
wholesome beverage. All theories that tend to this 
crumble and fall before the tragic scenes of history and 
experiences. If any doubt it, let them visit the shops 
and the saloons where this liquid draught is constantly 
dealt out and consumed, and behold the invariable and 
inevitable tendency of the whole thing. Let them wit- 
ness the bacchanalian revelry of those who tarry long at 
the beer, and then say, if they can, wherein lies the 
innocence and harmlessness of the drink. It is there 
that every low and debasing influence is at work ; there 
that every low amusement is resorted to, and there the 
enginery of evil kept in motion — the fires kindled, and 
the flames fed by men whose baser passions are stirred 
to the unhallowed work by the unnatural pressure that 
is upon them. Then we feel like taking up the senti- 
ment of the poet of the past, in another sense, and ex- 
claiming, " O thou invisible spirit of 'beer,' had we no 
other name to call thee by, we should christen thee as the 
Bard of Avon baptized the spirit of wine long ago, and 
recognize in this the grim portrait of him who presides 
over the world of woe." 



ITS ASPECT AKD ITS BEMEDY. 101 

There is now and then a ray of hope that comes 
athwart the gloom. Some are awaking to the considera- 
tion of the consequences which the custom of beer drink- 
ing involves. A sensation has recently arisen, by the 
conviction and ^corresponding action of a prominent 
brewer in Newark, N. J. He was one of the largest 
and wealthiest dealers in the place, had been in the 
business twenty-five years, and amassed a fortune esti- 
mated at half a million. All through the city of New 
York his beer was in popular demand. A few weeks 
since, under the conviction of duty which pressed upon 
him, he abandoned the pursuit which had engrossed his 
mind for a quarter of a century ; discharged those whom 
he had in his employ ; and declared his work, in the ordi- 
nary direction, to be at an end. Thus he tells his story : 
"Three years ago I stopped drinking any kind of beer 
or liquor, and have not tasted a drop since. Latterly 
I began to think that it was inconsistent for me to make 
for others what I deemed hurtful to myself. When I 
finally came to the conclusion that my business was 
wrong, and that to continue in it would simply be to 
outrage my conscience, I promptly resolved to stop ; and 
I have done it. I intend that this building, if used at 
all in future, must be devoted to other purposes. I re- 
solved not to sell my business ; I wanted it stopped. 
My action is not the result of religious excitement or 
conversion, but a conviction of what was my duty. I 
suppose that a good many Germans will take offence at 
what I have done ; and I am very sorry. The brewers, 
too, will be offended ; but, once convinced, as I am, that 
intemperance is the great curse of the world, I shall never 
again have anything to do with beer making. The Ger- 
mans are sensitive on this question ; but I guess, on 
second thought, they will admit my right to hold my 
own views ; I certainly would not interfere with theirs. 



102 INTEMPERANCE, 

Since getting out of the traffic, I have felt like a new 
man, — as though a load had been lifted from my con- 
science." Would similar resolutions be acted upon by 
those in like circumstances, and engaged in the same 
business, what burdens would be lifted from thousands 
of human hearts that now lie crushed and bleeding, with 
hope and gladness all gone out of them ! Not only would 
those immediately concerned share in the delightful sense 
of relief, but the crowd of those more remote, over whom 
the rushing tide of woe has swept, would lift up their 
heads, and breathe more freely under the new condition. 
When conviction shall have taken a wider range, and 
duty a broader sweep, there will not be so many wagons 
passing through our streets, piled up with the casks 
which contain the elements of disease and death, and 
are suggestive of all manner of unpleasant things. Even 
now they are passing the window, bent on their sad mis- 
sion — and where are the hearts and hands that are 
waiting to stay the blighting curse ? Where are those 
who would stay the filling of the cup, ere it be lifted to 
the lips of those who wipe out every symptom of a 
healthy taste in draining the fiery contents ? 

The times demand that they lurk no more in their 
hiding-places, but come forth with courage and strength, 
and wage open war with the formidable tyrant that 
leadeth so many captive at his will. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Rum and Brandy. 

STEPPING DOWNWARD. — TEMPERANCE PILLARS DISREGARDED. — WIFE'S 
METHOD OF REFORM. THREE STAGES OF DRINK. — ALCOHOLIC DE- 
RANGEMENT OF THE STOMACH OF THE BLOOD. — THE INEBRIATE'S 

CONFESSION. THE PHYSICIAN'S STORY. — RICH AND POOR ALIKE 

FALL. — WILKES BOOTH. — CASE OF DELIRIUM TREMENS. — THE MAN 
WHO THOUGHT HIMSELF SAFE. THE MANIAC'S SHRIEK. 

We read of " stepping heavenward," and as all the 
beautiful possibilities of such a course dawn upon us, 
everything that is good and true within us bows before 
it. We see how all the discipline of such a life tends 
to the exaltation of the soul ; how all surrounding cir- 
cumstances and attendant providences are so many re- 
fining processes to lift up and ennoble the heart ; how 
the secret and mysterious working of the invisible good 
shines out through the eyes, and reveals itself in every 
line of the face, until we, too, discover the rounds of the 
ladder of light up which such are climbing, and which is 
lost in the depths of the blue ether beyond. 

By the law of association we are borne upward, also. 
We trace the history of such ones with those feelings of 
intense satisfaction which we imagine the watchful 
guardians of the celestial world to feel when those 
whom they have been commissioned to " bear up," and 
minister unto, upon the earth, are ' obedient unto the 
heavenly vision, and wake to the harmonies of their 
angelic touch. But who shall turn from this to give an 
adequate description of the one stepping downward — 



104 INTEMPERANCE, . 

downward to the very brink of perdition, recklessly near- 
ing the verge of remediless ruin, and all the while writing 
the direst prophecies for himself ? Meantime, the shad- 
ows which precede coming events, are settling down into 
the "blackness of darkness" forever. 

O, it is enough to make the angels weep, if they are 
ever permitted to look down from their abodes of celes- 
tial purity and blessedness, and behold the multitude 
who are stepping, yea, rushing on, in this broad high- 
way of intemperance. To see those who should be re- 
flecting the glory of their creation, wilfully blotting out 
every trace of that which divinity stamped upon them, 
and prostituting all their gifts before an unholy and un- 
hallowed shrine, is enough to stir even heaven with 
pitiful indignation. There is no language strong enough 
to denounce the folly of such a course ; and yet the sad 
truth is acted out a thousand times, over and over, every 
day and every }^ear. We are so familiar with the re- 
ccital of all this waste and perversion ; so accustomed to 
the story of guilt and wretchedness — the wrongs and 
woes involved, that they too often fail to excite more than 
a sigh of commiseration, or, at most, the silent tear of 
pity. We have followed these unhappy beings while 
taking the first steps in their downward course, and we 
come now to the last station of their " Black Valley 
Railroad," just ahead of which is the Depot of Destruc- 
tion, and beyond, the track is lost in the shadows of the 
Infernal. We have seen them begin thoughtlessly — 
take the first steps remorsefully and shrinkingly, and we 
have seen them grow gradually bold and defiant, until 
they have reached the abandonment of every worthy 
impulse, and provoked the fury of a tempest which 
they knew would leave them a wrecked and stranded 
thing on the shores of time, with scarce a ray of hope 
that they could ever again be restored or refitted for the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 105 

position they had lost — if, indeed, they go not out of 
sight entirely. 

This is the point where the strongest of alcoholic 
mixtures will alone suffice to meet the want ; where the 
slow steps of the first grade have passed into the rapid 
strides of a steep declivity that knows no resistance. 
One by one the pillars of Temperance, against which he 
may have leaned in time past, have been swept away, 
and there remains nothing more for his support or his 
safety. He is impelled onward and downward by the 
momentum of his own deeds. Reason, Science, Reve- 
lation, and Experience are said to be the guide-boards 
in the way of every man, each pointing, with unerring 
finger, to the gate of the wise, and warning against the 
path of the destroyer ; but what are all these, and what 
the evils to which they point to him, who is controlled 
by rum and brandy, and every sensibility stupefied 
thereby ? What to him are the calm deductions of 
reason, when the proper functions of his judgment have 
no more play ? 

What to him are unfoldings of science when the fac- 
ulties of perception have been dimmed and bleared until 
there is no more power of vision remaining ? And what 
the monitory tones of revelation and experience, when 
conscience is deadened to every sound ? when hope 
ceases to allure, and fear stirs no compunction ? There 
seems no avenue by which the confirmed inebriate can be 
reached. His soul is effectually barred against all warn- 
ing and entreaty. Now and then, it may be, there comes 
a lucid interval, when the memory of what is lost comes 
over the mind, and there comes a humiliating sense of 
the degradation that rum has occasioned, accompanied 
by a momentary desire to be free from the galling bon- 
dage. The right treatment, at such a time, doth some- 
times work a change. " What brings you here, Mary ? " 
7 



106 INTEMPERANCE, 

said a man to his wife, as she entered the saloon where he 
had been leaving his money and his mind. She had 
pondered the fact over and over, until, in her despera- 
tion, she resolved to risk the attempt of a daring deed, 
and follow him to his well-known haunt. "It is very 
lonesome at home," she replied, " and your business sel- 
dom allows you to be there." There was a touching look 
of grief on that face, a plaintive sorrow in her tone as she 
said, " To me there is no company like yours ; and as you 
cannot come to me, I must come to you. I have a right 
to share your pleasures, as well as your sorrows." 

" But to come to such a place as this ! " expostulated 
the husband. " But no place can be improper where you 
are," said the poor, discouraged wife. " Whom God 
hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Taking 
up the glass of spirits which the keeper of the saloon 
had poured out for him, who had become his frequent 
customer, she raised it to her lips. 

With a look of unutterable astonishment he' ex- 
claimed, "Surely you are not going to drink that?" 
"Why not?" said she; "you say that you drink to 
forget sorrow, and surely I have sorrows to forget." 
Her children stood by her side in all their wondering 
innocence, and she gave to them what their father had 
called the cup of blessing. " Woman ! woman ! " cried 
the father, in great excitement, " you are not going to 
give that stuff to the children?" "Why not? Can 
children have a better example than their father's ? Is 
not what is good for him good for them also ? It will 
put them to sleep, and they will forget they are cold and 
hungry;" and, resolutely holding the cup, she said, 
"Drink, my children ; this is fire, and bed, and food, and 
clothing. Drink : you see how much good it does your 
father." It was enough. With seeming reluctance she 
suffered her husband to lead her home, and all that 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 107 

night all the powers of good and evil within him were 
struggling for the mastery. He thought of all that had 
brought him and his family to where they were ; to what 
a height of anguish his devoted wife had risen to inspire 
her with daring for such an act ; what depths of despair 
she must have fathomed ere she determined upon that 
first step — that dreadful, doubtful lesson. To have ap- 
propriated that one more glass, which she had snatched 
from his grasp, might have made it too late to compre- 
hend and escape the situation. As it was, he resolved, 
if there was any help for him, on earth or in heaven, he 
would reform ; and he did. The loving wife rejoiced in 
the success of her effort, and was wont to recall her first 
and last visit to the dram shop with a peculiar but mel- 
ancholy pleasure. 

There are different stages of alcoholic derangement, 
and the hopefulness of reform, and the ability to meet 
it, is somewhat in proportion to these. The first is a 
state of excitement, where the drink has had simply a 
mirth-producing effect, and he who is thus wrought 
upon feels that the world is jolly ; that he can bid dull 
care be gone, and sing the hours away, regardless of 
any serious obligation or claim. Thousands drain the 
contents of the cup just for this reason, because it brings 
to them a blessed forgetfulness of what is imposed upon 
them in the various relations in life ; and their straitened 
means and inefficient natures make them shrink from the 
necessary contest. Their duties to themselves and their 
families, their creditors and their country, are so many 
impelling motives to the indulgence of that which will 
hush these clamors, and send them into a world where 
none of these things are. 

The last stage involves the loss of the mental and 
moral faculties so completely, that all the bright visions 
of happiness, which made life so radiant at the begin- 



108 INTEMPERANCE, 

ning, all pass away, and the person reels and falls under 
the general benumbing influence, without consideration, 
or appreciation of anything. This is the climax of the 
drunkard's condition. But there is yet an intermediate 
grade, where, perhaps, most of the crimes associated with 
intemperance come in. There is a point prior to the 
extreme mental and moral degradation of the last stage, 
when these faculties of being are not paralyzed or sus- 
pended, but are, nevertheless, so confused and bewil- 
dered, that they are not awake to actual results and condi- 
tions, and not beyond the power of action, and therefore 
are ready for the committal of any deed. Here comes in 
the overwhelming conviction that alcohol is a terrible en- 
emy to the best interests of society ; inasmuch as, by its 
influence, there remaineth no more fitness in man for the 
right performance of anything. We have seen, in the 
general physiological influence upon the human system, 
what detriment it works upon all the organs of the body, 
and how, by the operation of fixed laws, it extends itself 
to the mind, the social affections, and the moral sensibili- 
ties. But let us trace its inevitable workings more mi- 
nutely, and observe the changes wrought by its intro- 
duction into the stomach. That organ, in its healthy 
state, as the first representation indicates, is slightly 
reddish, tinged with yellow, and the blood-vessels are 
invisible. Alcohol is taken, and these become enlarged 
and distended, though the stimulant be taken but moder- 
ately. Taken in larger quantities, " the inner coat of 
the stomach becomes corroded with small ulcers, which 
are covered with white crusts, with the margin of the 
ulcers elevated and ragged." Still later, when the man 
gives himself up to days and nights of habitual indul- 
gence, there " is seen a high degree of inflammation ex- 
tending over the surface, changing its color to deep red, 
and in some points exhibiting a livid appearance." From 



K^CTRFCNTAL SYMPTOMS. 




DIAGRAMS OF THE STOMACH IN VARIOUS CONDITIONS. 







HEALTHFUL 



MODERATE DRINKING 




DRUNKARDS 



ULCEROUS DELIRIUM TREMENS 



V * 



*, x 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 109 

this it goes on to the last fearful scenes, when delirium 
comes in to draw a veil over everything, and there is a 
dark-brown, flaky substance over the stomach, beneath 
which is traced an inflammation that seems but little 
less than an incipient state of mortification. " But there 
is still another principle," says Thomas Sewell, medical 
professor in Columbia College, " on which the use of 
alcohol predisposes the drunkard to disease and death." 
Not only is it the fearful cause of this wretched condi- 
tion of the stomach, " it acts on the blood, impairs its 
vitality, deprives it of its red color, and thereby renders 
it unfit to stimulate the heart and other organs through 
which it circulates; unfit, also, to supply the materials 
for the different secretions, and to renovate the different 
tissues of the body, as well as to sustain the energy of 
the brain — offices which it can perform only while it re- 
tains the vermilion color and other arterial properties. 
The blood of the drunkard is several shades darker in 
its color than that of temperate persons, and also coagu- 
lates less readily and firmly, and is loaded with serum — 
appearances which indicate that it has exchanged its 
arterial properties for those of venous blood. This is 
the cause of the livid complexion of the inebriate, which 
so strongly marks him in the advanced stages of intem- 
perance. Here, too, all the functions of his body are 
sluggish, irregular, and the whole system loses its tone 
and energy. If alcohol, when taken into the system, 
exhausts the vital principle of the solids, it destroys the 
vital principle of the blood' also, and, if taken in large 
quantities, produces death ; in which case the blood, 
as in death produced by lightning, by opium, or by vio- 
lent and long-continued exertion, does not coagulate. 

The inebriate having, by the habitual use of intoxicat- 
ing drinks, exhausted, to a greater or less extent, the 
principle of excitability in the solids, the power of re- 



110 INTEMPERANCE,' 

action, and the blood having become incapable of per- 
forming its offices also, he is alike predisposed to e very- 
disease, and rendered liable to the inroads of every 
invading foe. So far, therefore, from protecting the 
system against disease, intemperance ever constitutes 
one of its strongest predisposing causes. Superadded to 
this, whenever disease lays its grasp upon the drunkard, 
the powers of life being already enfeebled by the stimu- 
lus of alcohol, he sinks unexpectedly in the contest. 
Indeed, inebriation so enfeebles the powers of life, so 
modifies the character of disease, and so changes the 
operation of medical agents, that unless the young phy- 
sician has studied thoroughly the constitution of the 
drunkard, he has but partially learned his profession, 
and is not fit for a practitioner of the present age." 

True as the latter statement may be, it is, nevertheless, 
a most humiliating confession that the degeneracy of the 
times in this respect calls for so much of training and 
effort to meet the demands of its various aspects. We 
cannot deny that the individual and collective influences 
of this wide-spread traffic are sad and mighty ; that it 
is as though a vast army were all the whiie marching 
on to the other world, composed of those who thought, 
when they enlisted, they could regulate their part in 
the campaign to suit themselves, but found, all too late, 
they were deceived, and were under the dominion of a 
tyrant that would not let them go. 

The vast majority of those who come under the power 
of rum and brandy are hopelessly beyond retreat. De- 
ceived, deluded, and enslaved, such are held fast under 
bonds of iniquity. All the strongest principles of man's 
nature — fear, shame, ambition, and love — are power- 
less to restrain the slave of alcohol. All the terrors of 
human and divine law, and the love of an infinite re- 
demption, are alike unavailing. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. Ill 

" If a bottle of brandy," said an inebriate, " stood at 
one hand, and the pit of hell yawned at the other, and 
I knew that I should be pushed in as soon as I took one 
glass, I could not refrain." There is nothing upon earth 
that produces such demoniac frenzy, nothing that makes 
one so utterly dead to every sentiment of humanity, 
so perfectly reckless of his destiny, for weal or for woe, 
in this world and the next. Dr. Jewett, in a tract enti- 
tled " Bound, and How," thus remarks : " ' Why,' it is 
asked, ' does not the man know that he is thus sure to 
destroy his life, and that soon ? ' ' Certainly.' ' And 
does he not know, too, that he is afflicting terribly a 
most excellent family ? ' ' Yes.' ' And wasting his 
estate? ' 'Yes.' ' And sacrificing a once enviable rep- 
utation ? ' ' Yes.' ' Why, then, does he not stop drink- 
ing ? ' 'Go and ask him ; and if you can, by kind words 
and treatment, gain his confidence so that he will talk 
freely with you in relation to the matter, he will tell you 
he cannot. He used to declare that in his case there was 
no danger. ' I can drink,' he once said, ' or let it alone, 
as I choose.' He uses no such language now. Others 
may; but for him, he has received a terrible education. 
Perhaps it has come too late ; but he now fully under- 
stands the power of his enemy, and the strength of the 
chain with which he has suffered himself to be bound. 
He has probably tested its strength a score, it may be a 
hundred times, striving to break it with the full purpose 
of his will, but as often he has failed ; and now, per- 
haps, he has reached the last stage. It is one of despair.. 
He now drowns reflection by drink, secures what relief 
he can from the torture of a disorganized nervous sys- 
tem by deep draughts of the poison, and awaits what to 
him seems the inevitable plunge." 

The history of one such is essentially the history of all. 
From the moderate and occasional use of the lighter 



112 INTEMPERANCE, 

spirits he goes on to the frequent and inordinate use of 
the stronger, until, almost unconsciously, he is beyond 
recall. Says the author just cited, " At the conclusion 
of a lecture delivered in one of our Western States, a few 
years since, on this subject, a gentleman requested me 
to accompany him to his office. He was, as I learned, 
a physician in extensive practice, and a professor in a 
medical college. I complied with his request. On 
entering the office, he asked me to be seated, and, clos- 
ing the door, took a seat near, and directly in front, and 
facing me. His eyes filled with tears, and every feature 
of his countenance, which was a noble one, was agitated 
with emotion, as he thus addressed me : ' Dr. Jewett, 
I am one of the unfortunate ones whose cases you have 
been considering this evening ; and I have reason to fear 
that it is now too late for me to make any successful 
effort to break the chain which binds me.' ' Indeed,' 
said I, ' let us hope not. Have you made the effort, 
doctor ? ' ' Yes ; and so far I have failed,' was his sad 
reply. He added, ' I have again and again resolved, 
with all the strength of my nature, that I would never 
drink another glass of intoxicating liquors, and yet I 
have drank again within twenty-four hours.' 'Why 
did jou drink, doctor, after having resolved and prom- 
ised yourself you would not ? ' I asked. Now I beg my 
readers to understand that I did not ask that question 
for information. I knew quite well why he drank again ; 
but I wished to learn how he, a man of science, a teacher 
of medicine, would express the facts of the case. It was 
in substance as follows : ' Usually,' said he, ' when I 
have formed a resolution to abstain in future, it has 
been at the close of unusually hard drinking, when the 
folly, shame, and peril of the thing have come very viv- 
idly before m}'- mind ; and then I have said, and with 
emphasis, " This thing ends here. Not another glass, on 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 113 

any consideration, or under any circumstances. But I 
did not properly estimate the change that would come 
over me as the liquor, during the night, should be elimi- 
nated, or cast out of my system. In the morning I 
would be nerveless and wretched, and the first impulse 
would be to supply the system with the coveted article. 
But I had resolved that I would not, and so would 
keep about until the hour of breakfast. I would take a 
little food, perhaps, and a cup of coffee ; but it did not 
meet the demands of my nervous system. I would feel 
a deadly sinking at the pit of the stomach ; my hands 
were tremulous, as was, in fact, my whole body ; I could 
not control or use my mind to any purpose, or scarcely 
my body ; and my misery, increasing every hour and 
moment, would at last reach a point where it would 
seem quite impossible to endure it longer. It would 
seem, in fact, as if I was sinking into the very pit of 
hell ; and in sheer desperation I have rushed to the near- 
est place of supply, and swallowed again the accursed 
thing that has brought all this upon me.' And he 
added, with an expression of despair in that noble coun- 
tenance which I shall not soon forget, 6 So I expect it 
will be, in the future, until I drop into the grave, as 
thousands of poor fellows have done before me.' ' 

And this is the inevitable tendency. From it there is 
no escape. There are but few who intend to come to 
this when they begin. They mistake the weakness of 
their own fallen nature, or the strength and power of 
that with which they have to do, or both, and enter the 
dangerous arena before they are aware of it. It not 
only takes the simple, uneducated, and poverty-stricken 
class, and makes them more so, but it embraces in its 
relentless grasp the higher — the refined, educated, 
wealthy, and most promising of young and old in the 
best circles. The most favored and intelligent fall into 



114 INTEMPERANCE, 

the snare with others less gifted, and it writes the same 
unmistakable characters upon all. There are no hiero- 
glyphics here. The world knows the drunkard wher- 
ever he be. His looks tell it, his words betray it, and 
his steps reveal it to every passer-by, as plainly as 
though it were stamped in so many letters on his fore- 
head. He is himself a walking sign, a perpetual monu- 
ment to the enslaving power of strong drink. It would 
seem that the very sight of such men would be enough 
to warn the young against the folly of even tasting a 
drink that is producing such terrible consequences. 
There is nothing like the indifference that is manifested 
here, in the history of any other malady with which 
the world is conversant. Men will take every possible 
precaution, shrink from contact with an infectious dis- 
ease, that lasts but a little, and may never prove mortal, 
and yet these same persons will pour down the brandy, 
when they know full well its debasing effect and deathly 
working, and see the living testimony to the truth all 
about them. They will look upon the most unprece- 
dented acts of cruelty and injustice, and attempt to 
excuse and palliate the crimes, because those concerned 
were laboring under a temporary loss of sense by reason 
of too much alcohol. After Wilkes Booth had matured 
his plan to take the life of President Lincoln, there 
was still a depth in his graceless soul from whence came 
a shuddering at the guilt and horror of his premeditated 
scheme. He could not summon sufficient courage to 
strike the dreadful blow, and he rushed into a saloon, 
and cried, " Brandy ! brandy ! " Not until that irritat- 
ing genius had effaced every shadow of a good impulse 
from his being, did he dare to aim the fatal ball at the 
defenceless head of one of the best men that ever filled 
the executive chair of the American nation. 

It makes the brain wild, and sends it, a whirling, reel- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 117 

ing, giddy thing, beyond the bounds of reason, where it 
is subject to no law, and not a fit instrument for action 
in anything or anywhere ; and finally the culmination is 
reached in that most wretched of all conditions — delir- 
ium tremens. Probably there is nothing in all the world 
that brings to the spirit of man so full a realization 
of the horrors of the •" bottomless pit," as that which 
comes in experiences like these. Abandoned of all that 
is good, and consigned, as it were, into the hands of him 
who only seeketh to destroy, he finds him laughing at 
his helplessness and mocking at his fear. Satan has no 
more powerful ally in the accomplishment of his work 
than brandy ; and when that has done all that it can do, 
he is satisfied, for the destructive work is complete. He 
lets loose his emissaries around the bed of such a one, 
and there is no escape from the hellish torture which well 
nigh rends soul and body. He gives them no welcome 
picture for the eyes to feast upon ; he lets them hear 
no sounds but the doleful skrieks of despair, or feel any 
change but the thickening of the darkness, and the 
fiercer burst of the storm. 

" The room is full of devils," said one in this condi- 
tion. " They are in my hair — pull them out ! They are 
laughing and grinning at me from the wall — send them 
away ! " And with the beaded perspiration on his brow, 
quivering and shrinking, he sought to screen himself 
from their gaze by hiding under the bed-clothes. But 
the foul spirit was there ; and starting and shrinking he 
exclaimed, " I'm rushing through the streets of hell — 
see them laugh on both sides of me ! What looks of 
scorn ! What derision ! I must leave it ; " and the hands 
of strong men only restrained the attempt to leap forth — 
to spring forward anywhere, so as only to be saved from 
the impending doom. There was no relief, whichever 
way he turned. "lam treading on millions of worms ! 



118 INTEMPERANCE, 

serpents are hissing and writhing under my feet — O, 
lift me up ! O, take me away ! " And so, with such an 
outlook, amid these fearful sights and sounds, he grap- 
pled long with these tormenting, taunting foes. 

Strange, beyond all comprehension, that with a knowl- 
edge of these results any one will clutch the glass that 
binds him to such a fate ; that he will throw himself 
into the embrace of all this fiendish maliciousness, and 
drink on, with the awful doom staring him in the face. 
Brandy writes a cannot upon every movement of the 
will ; and one might as well undertake to escape from 
death, when the inexorable mandate has gone forth at 
the divine bidding, as to free himself from the utter 
helplessness of being, which an advanced stage of drunk- 
enness induces. 

" A few years since, a man of splendid abilities, when 
temporarily released from the power of the destroyer, 
gave to the world a touching and graphic sketch of his 
purposes and views in the following lines : — 

'I've thrown the bowl aside; 
For me no more shall flow 
Its ruddy stream, its sparkling tide, 
How bright soe'er it glow ; 
Pre seen extended wide 
Its devastating sway; 
Seen reason yield its power to guide, — 
I've cast the bowl away.' 

He, however, miscalculated his strength, and, notwith- 
standing these just views and excellent purposes, he 
sleeps in the grave of the drunkard. So true is it, that 
when once the passion is excited, the appetite formed, 
however hard and long one may seek to subdue and put 
it away, it is at best but the lulling of the demon to a 
temporary sleep, and it is ready to spring forth and over- 
power him at the slightest provocation. There is no 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 119 

power of intellect, no brilliancy of attainment, no energy 
of character, or strength of purpose, that counts much of 
anything in this warfare. If the battle has been waging 
long, there is but little chance for anything but perma- 
nent defeat. Now and then the shouts of victory are 
heard over the rise of some low-fallen one ; but they are 
rare. Those who begin the mad career are almost sure 
to step down and still downward, until they reach the 
lowest depth. They may slide slowly, — perhaps almost 
imperceptibly at the first, — but the momentum is still 
constantly increasing, until at last, in the wanton reck- 
lessness of his thirst, he shrieks, In hell they never 
want for rum ; haste, drive me down, 

"Where rum is free; where revellers reign, 
And I can wear the drunkard's crown." 



120 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER IX. 

Where is it found? 

ALCOHOLIC MISERY CANNOT BE PAINTED. — LOVE OP GAIN THE PRO- 
PELLING MOTIVE. — LORD CHESTERFIELD'S REMARK. RUM SELLER'S 

TREATMENT OP AN OLD MAN. THE COUNTRY TAVERN. — HOMES AND 

HAUNTS OP THE DRUNKARD. — FIVE POINTS. GROCERS' NETS. 

FREE LUNCH HOUSES. FIRST-CLASS HOTELS. — CLUB-ROOMS. EU- 
ROPEAN AND MODERN STYLE. POWER OF EXAMPLE. 

There have been many discoveries made in the world 
by the perseverance and ingenuity of man, that have sent 
a thrill of joy and a tide of blessing over all the people ; 
but could the full significance of the discovery have been 
comprehended when the process of distillation was first 
evoked, it might have been written, in letters of blood 
and characters of fire, from one end of heaven's broad 
arch to the other, " Woe unto the world because of this." 
It was bad enough that sin planted the image of woe 
around the habitations of men at the beginning, but this 
made it go deeper and rise higher ; caused it to assume 
vastly greater proportions, and take on an aspect of 
fiercer malignity, than it otherwise would have done. 

There are no calculations that can sum up the amount 
of human misery that has come to the world through the 
medium of this alcoholic agent. • The delineations of pen 
and pencil have shadowed it forth in every conceivable 
light, but there is that remaining which can never be 
shadowed forth — never be written — that spends itself 
in the silent recesses of burdened, aching hearts — in 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 121 

sighs and tears that are not seen, except to an eye that 
is omniscient. We have seen what it can and will do. 
We have studied its nature and its effects, observed the 
different grades of its presentation, and followed the dif- 
ferent stages of their action ; and now the questions be- 
fore us are, Who is responsible ? Where is it found ? 
And how is it that the habit of drinking is so universal ? 

In the first place, a love of gain is the absorbing pas- 
sion of men. Whatever opens the way to this will be 
eagerly pursued. Questionable though the means may 
be, there are usually argumentative opiates enough to 
soothe the restless conscience, and keep it comfortably 
quiet, when its disturbing forces come in competition 
with the coveted acquisition. In the early history of the 
rum traffic, before its manufacture had come to be con- 
sidered a degrading business, there was required no such 
education of this sort to bring him up to the work ; but 
in these days of enlightened conviction, when the whole 
thing is pronounced morally wrong, it requires more 
daring in a man to stand up and declare that he will put 
gold in his coffers, though it be at the expense of every- 
thing that others hold dear. But the passion impels 
the daring, and there are not wanting men everywhere, 
who are ready to invest their capital and devote their 
energies to the manufacture of that which, though prof- 
itable, is ruinous to every interest of the world. They 
satisfy themselves by saying, "It will be had. If I do 
not furnish it, others will, and society is no worse for 
what I am doing;" — and so the work goes on, the 
facilities are multiplied, the supply is increased, and it is 
bottled, barrelled, and circulated everywhere. Verily 
the manufacturer is responsible for this. 

Close these fountains that are feeding the streams 
which are wearing their polluting channels into the heart 
of society, and doubtless their proprietors would cry out 



122 INTEMPERANCE, 

for their gains as strongly as the drunkard would plead 
for his dram. The yast enginery of distillation is kept 
in motion in this way. As long as the propelling power 
of avarice is the distinguishing characteristic- of men, so 
long it will continue, more or less. 

Not until there is a mighty moral revolution that shall 
elevate the standard of public sentiment higher than it 
ever yet has been, will the actors in this part of the 
drama be roused to consider what they are doing. Just 
so long as it is made to flow out among the people, just 
so long will they gather it up, and all the long catalogue 
of woes that follow in its train will be swelling all the 
while. 

Lord Chesterfield calls these manufacturers of spirit- 
ous liquors "artists in human slaughter ; " and John 
Wesley declares these traffickers to be "poisoners-gen- 
eral. They murder by wholesale," he says; "neither 
does their eye pity or spare. And what is their gain ? Is 
it not the blood of these men ? "Who would envy their 
large estates and their sumptuous palaces ? A curse is 
in the midst of them. The curse of God is on their gar- 
dens, their walks, their groves ; a fire that burns to the 
nethermost hell. Blood, blood, is theirs ; the foundation, 
the floor, the walls, the roof is stained with blood." 

This greed for gain is exemplified among all those who 
are interested in disseminating the drink in whatever 
form. Hard by the manufactory is the public house, 
and, indeed, in every town, village, and hamlet of the 
land, these institutions are opened, in every variety of 
style, professedly to meet the wants of the people, but 
primarily to get money ; and in order to insure the last 
consideration, a bar is thought to be an indispensable 
requisite. If addressed on the importance of discontin- 
uing this part of their business, because of the demoral- 
izing influence in the community in which they live, the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 123 

men who conduct them exclaim, " As well shut up my 
house as to close my bar. It would not pay ; " and so 
there is hardly a place anywhere in the most retired sec- 
tions but what affords the poison to anybody that will 
call for it. Those who sell justify themselves on the 
ground that they do not ask the people to come and buy ; 
that they only keep a supply to meet a demand, and 
if men will take and drink more than is good for them, 
the consequences belong to them. Why should they 
share the responsibility ? 

It was a remark of Oliver Goldsmith's, that he " never 
saw a city or village yet whose miseries were not in 
proportion to the number of its public houses." The 
crowd who loiter about these places illustrate very for- 
cibly the miserable tendency of the whole thing. They 
advertise the lowest condition of society ; for it is here 
the idler, the lounger of every description, are wont to 
meet, and here congregate all those elements of disturb- 
ance which decent travellers feel like shunning. 

The boys in the place are apt to gather around, and 
witness what is going on, and if they happon to escape 
the snare of the drunkard, they become familiar with 
every kind of vulgarity and profanity. The rum seller 
himself, if he had any mercy in his nature at the begin- 
ning, soon loses everything of the sort, and spurns the 
man from the door that he has helped to make brutish. 

A gentleman who was travelling put up at a public 
house in a country place, and thus relates a scene which 
came under his observation at the time : " While warm- 
ing ourselves by the fire in the bar-room one Saturday 
night, we observed the bar-keeper dealing out liquor to 
a venerable man, who^ with tremulous hands, put the 
intoxicating cup to his lips. He seemed intelligent, was 
well dressed, and had the appearance of being a respec- 
table man, abating his intemperance. We learned after- 
8 



124 INTEMPERANCE, 

wards that such was his character at home, and that he 
lived in an adjoining town, and was waiting for a con- 
veyance to take him to the point of his destination. At 
midnight the man became noisy, to the annoyance of the 
inmates, by reason of the liquor he had received at the 
bar ; whereupon the bar-keeper, with characteristic be- 
nevolence, turned him out of doors to spend the rest 
of a most piercing cold night in the street. The next 
morning we heard the bar-keeper boasting, with a fiend- 
like exultation, how he had disposed of ' the noisy old 
devil.' We told him it was cruel to feed a man with 
rum until he had deprived him of his senses, and then 
turn him out to perish because he did not act as a rational 
man. The fire had scarcely been kindled in the morn- 
ing, before the old man, shivering with cold, came back 
into the bar-room, where he was again received as a good 
customer. He formed one of the bar-room company all 
the Sabbath, alternately snoring in a chair and drinking, 
and acting like a maniac. About ten o'clock Sunday 
night — being saturated with rum — his hospitable land- 
lord again turned him out into the street ; and it was an 
intensely cold night. About an hour after he was out, 
a man came in, who said he had seen the old fellow sit- 
ting on the ground, and had taken him up and thrust 
him into a tailor's shop. But for this act of kindness he 
would have frozen to death in a very short time ; and 
here," continues the traveller, "is a specimen of the 
tender mercies of the rum seller." When the contents 
of the pocket have been dropped into their till, there is 
no more object for them to gain. They will fill the cup 
and stir it well just as long as a man is capable of hand- 
ing out the change, and has enough wherewith to do it, 
apparently thinking not, or caring, what the effect may 
be upon those he is robbing to enrich himself. With a 
complacent folding of the hands, they pride themselves 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 125 

upon the respectability of their position, and are content 
with the basis of their fortune. Says a writer, " I was 
once walking through a beautiful country village, in 
company with a farmer who had all his life resided in 
the neighborhood. The rural scenery around was very 
beautiful, with here and there touches of the romantic ; 
presently we came to a very respectable looking public 
house by the road-side. The landlady, a widow, stood 
at the door, and, recognizing my companion, nodded to 
him, and he returned the saluation. The landlady was 
a fine, portly-looking dame, with black silk dress, and 
gold chain hanging down to the waist, and altogether in 
keeping with the house. I remarked to my companion, 
4 That certainly is a very respectable looking public house, 
and a very courteous and respectable landlady, too.' 
My companion replied, ' You are quite correct ; that 
public house is the most respectably conducted house in 
this neighborhood, and that landlady is a most respecta- 
ble woman ; but I wish to tell you something about the 
house. Thirty years ago that house was licensed for the 
sale of intoxicating liquor, and, year after year, that 
license has been renewed. Now, during those thirty 
years, how many victims, think you, have perished in 
consequence of the drink obtained in that house ? ' Not 
liking to hazard a guess, he said, ' Well, then, I will tell 
you. In the course of those thirty years, to my certain 
knowledge, thirty victims have perished most miserably 
in consequence of liquor obtained at that house. Some 
of them were opulent farmers, belonging to this neigh- 
hood, and others were gentlemen of independent for- 
tunes. Some of them, before their death, were reduced 
almost to penury, and most of them died young, or in 
the prime of life. Two or three of them were carried 
out of that house insensible, and died in their homes 
shortly afterwards, and others died of fever, or of 



126 INTEMPEEANCE, 

delirium tremens, brought on by debauch at that 
house." 

These are the so-called respectable dram shops ; and, 
if these are so prolific in sowing the seeds of discord and 
sorrow, what shall we say of the countless places of 
lower standing, in the more densely crowded towns and 
villages, apart from rural surroundings? There are 
some places where they pride themselves in not selling 
to drunkards, but here there is no such restraint. It is 
dealt out indiscriminately to the lowest, and, indeed, 
that class constitutes by far the largest part of their pat- 
ronage. They are generally in the suburbs, and dingy 
bottles are the sign in the window. It is here at these 
places that we see the saddest sights, and observe the 
worst phases of intemperance — here, where it is carried 
so far that poverty and wretchedness tell their direst 
tales in connection with it. The poor who will have 
whiskey go to these shops — those who have no pride or 
self-respect to maintain, who are past caring for what 
anybody may say or think. There are plenty of those 
who are ready to minister to the wants of such, for 
money. Would any one read the sequel to all this, let 
him go to the homes and haunts of those who tarry long 
at these places. They are usually out — down and apart 
from others — for respectable people have no sympathy 
with such extreme degradation, and so they generally 
congregate in a community by themselves, and it be- 
comes a notorious quarter, where everything is in keep- 
ing, and no well-meaning person ever cares to intrude. 
" Their houses," it is said, " are generally known by the 
broken door-yard fence ; the fallen gate ; the windows 
stuffed with old hats and rags ; the clapboards dangling 
in the air ; the barns held up by props, and stripped of 
their boards, which have been used for fuel ; a half- 
starved horse standing in the street ; and several ragged 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 127 

children, who, without hats or shoes, spend their days 
in dragging brush- wood from the neighboring forests, or 
in begging pennies from door to door, to buy their 
mother a loaf of bread. The interior is like unto it. 
There is no neatness or comfort there ; no bed but one 
of straw, laid on knotted ropes ; here a show of a table, 
and there a broken chair ; a half dozen broken plates, 
rusty knives and forks, and iron spoons ; a mug for 
cider, and a bottle for rum, and, whatever else fails, 
these must be replenished. The last thing will be 
pawned to secure the last drop. ' I have known them,' 
said a philanthropist who visited these places, ' to sell 
the feathers from their bed, pound by pound, in order to 
secure the accustomed dram.' Neither carpet nor plaster- 
ing is in such homes. If it is winter, the snow will lie 
upon the bed, and the mother and her children will be 
seen huddling over a few embers, as their only refuge. 
Night comes, but no sound of a father's voice, with com- 
fortable food to cheer and gladden. Children cry them- 
selves to sleep. The mother sits and watches until the 
moon goes down, and distant footsteps are heard, and 
horrid oaths are vented at not finding the door, causing 
her heart to quail ; and a monster in human shape, but 
the father of her children, bursts upon her, and perhaps 
drives her out in the cold and dreary night, even in a 
pitiless storm, compelling her to leave her babes to his 
neglect or cruelty. Perhaps the mother herself, driven 
by despair and desperation, becomes a victim to the 
same habit r and adds the last bitter ingredient to the 
dregs of home misery. Thus sowing the wind, they 
reap the whirlwind, and what is transmitted to the chil- 
dren prepares the next generation for a kindred harvest 
of woe." 

Perhaps a more notable example than the Five Points, 
in the city of New York, cannot be adduced to illustrate 



128 INTEMPERANCE, 

what a place and people may become when given over 
to the full dominion of intemperance in its lowest form. 
For years, the prominent feature in the case was an old 
brewery, that threw its doors wide open to all the sur- 
rounding population ; and, if all the foul spirits of the 
nether world had congregated there, it could scarcely 
have been worse. A more ragged, dirty, miserable, beg- 
garly set never walked the earth than was seen there. 
Ignorance, vice, and every species of crime stalked defi- 
antly through all the region. The dilapidated buildings 
hardly covered their inmates. The very air was laden 
with shrieks, wails, and oaths. A respectable person 
could not pass through the quarter without having his 
every sense shocked beyond measure. Whiskey was the 
one consideration. It showed itself in every place and 
every thing. Many shunned it as a place where human 
life was not safe. If any, urged by a feeling of philan- 
thropy, were moved to do anything to ameliorate the 
condition of the wretched inhabitants, they felt that 
they took their lives in their hand when they attempted 
to do it. As long as the Old Brewery stood, this state 
of things continued. It did its work as a minister of 
death for a long time. When, by the persistent efforts 
of the wise and good, these doors were closed, there 
came a change over the spirit of the place ; and the 
atmosphere, so heavily charged with the fumes of the 
distillery and the poisonous breath of so many drunk- 
ards, became purer, and a more healthful condition of 
things began to prevail. Who is responsible for all this ? 
The inspired penman says, " Woe unto him that giveth 
his neighbor drink." 

Here is the worst aspect of the case — the darkest 
side of the picture. These are the deepest depths into 
which intemperance can plunge its victims ; but it may 
be there is yet a phase of the question that has a sadder 




THE FIVE POINTS. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 131 

hue than even this. These persons, in the main, are 
from the lowest grades of humanity, at the best. While 
it is true that drink has a tendency to bring and keep 
them there, it is also true that this wide-spread visible 
desolation is apparent more particularly among those 
who are naturally ignorant, vicious, and unprincipled. 
As persons of kindred tastes, habits, and customs are 
apt to attach themselves together, so these people are 
wont to associate themselves in a community, where 
their propensities are least liable to be checked or dis- 
turbed. In the most favoring circumstances, their moral 
instincts would be but feeble, and their higher apprehen- 
sions narrow and slow ; but, while this does not excuse 
them for going so much lower than they need to, it may 
stamp the fact with significance that their doom will not 
be as dreadful, nor their guilt as great, as those who fall 
from greater heights, with more of obligation upon 
them, and more light and knowledge around them. 

We have said before that the primary and visible 
effects of alcohol were the same in all cases; that the 
high and low, the rich and poor, are alike in this mat- 
ter ; and yet there is a system of caste here, where the 
lines are as rigidly drawn as anywhere else. There is a 
class above these, who love the sparkling stimulant just 
as well, perhaps, but who would not demean themselves 
so much as to hang about these low places ; and various 
are the artifices resorted to, to meet the wants of this 
company. They have, it may be, a sufficient moral sense 
of the fitness of things to make them hesitate to go 
boldly and openly forward in their indulgence ; and 
those who are ready to help them may still have some 
appreciation and fear of the public sentiment against 
their efforts ; so they have a thousand ingenious and 
secret devisings — a new and significant alphabet, that 
their followers learn, but which common people are not 



132 INTEMPERANCE, 

supposed to understand. This not only meets the wants 
of those we are referring to, but it has become a fruitful 
means of beguiling the unwary, and catching them, 
spider-like, in the net, where they are kept beyond the 
possibility of recovery. The great question with the 
dealer is, " How can I increase the demand for my 
liquor, so that I may receive the profits arising from a 
larger sale ? " Acting from this incentive, he tries every 
sort of plan, and, having undertaken it, every baser pas- 
sion of his nature is lent to the work. There are a 
great many ways of doing the thing in these modern 
days — a great many novel arrangements got up to suit 
the occasion, that show, at least, the activity of mind, 
and its wonderful power of adaptation to circumstances. 
In order to realize a grand pecuniary consideration, it 
has become a branch business with many of various 
trades and callings, and it is amusing, not to say outrage- 
ous, to see the endless forms of deceit that are manufac- 
tured to cover and beguile. Grocers have opened side 
doors, and printed on them in large letters, " Sample 
Room." What more natural than to suppose such a 
corner requisite for their legitimate trade ? What could 
be less likely to excite suspicion under the circumstan- 
ces, or who would think of questioning the motives of 
the frequent visitors there ? There is always a way for 
the hidden things of darkness to come to light, and so 
it has come to be known that there are thousands of just 
such places as these, where the samples are only exhibi- 
tions of spirits, that are ready to be dealt out to men 
who would thus conceal their shame. Proprietors of 
country stores roll barrels into their cellars, and, by 
some mysterious telegraphic communication, it is known 
among a certain class that it is not molasses, or sugar, or 
any such thing. They for whom it is provided under- 
stand it all ; and there is no corner of that store that is 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 133 

so well patronized, for the convenience of a sly back 
entrance is appreciated. 

To accomplish the object in the least objectionable 
way, there are bottles of multiform size and appearance, 
prepared with counterfeit labels, which profess to be the 
mildest form of an attractive and popular beverage that 
can be offered to the public ; and this class shelter them- 
selves under this style, secretly exulting in the thought 
that they are realizing their ambition, and blinding their 
friends. In the cities, there are prominent rooms on 
fashionable streets that hold out the sign, " Free Lunch." 
Does it mean that some philanthropist, mindful of the 
wants and ways of men, has gone systematically to 
work, and fitted up rooms in the gayest and most fasci- 
nating manner ; setting out tables, and furnishing them 
temptingly and elaborately ; placing about them a score 
of the most beautiful and winning young ladies he could 
command, to do the attendant honors ; hiring a band of 
music to minister to the festivities of the dance, — does 
he do all this, and then say to the young men of the 
city, " I did this all for you ; it is free : come in, and 
take your fill of pleasure " ? Does it mean all this ? 
Ah, no ! It has a far different meaning from this. We 
will not call them philanthropists, but there are men 
who do all this — make all this display — in order to 
hide the main feature of their peculiar institution. Out 
of sight is a well-filled bar, which is the centre about 
which all these other things are made to revolve. All 
the gathered fascinations and attractions are as so many 
baits to allure men into the net that is spread for them. 
Thus consummate art plies the work of death, and vir- 
tue, reputation, and every good are sacrificed at these 
worse than Moloch shrines. 

But there are yet some who have not been reached. 
The £lite of the higher and more aristocratic circles are 



134 INTEMPEKANCE, 

yet untouched. They might scorn the idea of being 
seen at any of those places we have mentioned, and so 
special provision has been made for them. The all- 
embracing arms of moneyed ambition would not leave 
them out of its grasp. The luxurious appliances of 
their own tables may perhaps serve for the satisfaction 
of their own every-day wants, but when they travel 
their round of pleasure, they must stop at magnificent 
hotels, on broad avenues, where the lavish hand of 
wealth has piled up luxury in a thousand dainty forms. 
These structures stand as so many monuments of what 
art and wealth can do, when used and applied by the 
skill, energy, industry, and peculiar ability of the peo- 
ple's architects. The palace-like arrangements of these 
institutions are remarkable, but there is one thing in 
which the lordly presiders are not quite at their ease. 
If they would please their customers altogether, and 
make their vast scheme an entire success, they must 
have a bar, and where shall they put it ? The tone of 
public sentiment is so far against it they dare not give it 
a conspicuous position ; so they go far back to the re- 
motest corner, or perchance hide it beneath in the more 
quiet basement. They give it the elegant adornments 
befitting the character and reputation of such a house, 
and the aristocratic man can walk in and quaff his glass 
in all the et cetera of style. There is no danger that 
he will encounter the man of low degree, for the spar- 
kling liquids that shimmer and shine in the vessels of 
fanciful mould have too much of gold in their price to 
admit of this. There he will not come in contact with 
the lounging idler and the reeling peasantry, for the 
marble floors and the gilded ceiling of those spacious 
rooms were never designed for such as these. The 
polite and the affluent drinker alone must enter here. 
The poison is poison still, but it is served in daintier 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. loT 

glasses ; and the reality of the difference is, it is made to 
do its work in more genteel style. The social wants of 
this class have created another demand — given rise to 
an institution of another character, but which has asso- 
ciated with it the degenerating influences of drink, and 
that is the " club-room." There was a time in the his- 
tory of England when its metropolitan city boasted of a 
brighter galaxy of poets and literary men than was ever 
before known. Never was so much of talent gathered 
together in one place as then and there. Never was 
genius more ably and brilliantly represented. These 
men were attracted to each other. Their common in- 
terest in literary pursuits induced a congeniality of spirit 
that brought them often into each other's society. They 
were invited to dine in company ; and their gay sallies 
of wit, their pointed sarcasms and brilliant repartees, 
their learned discussions and lofty utterances, are mat- 
ters of history unto this day. They formed themselves 
into a club, provided themselves with rooms, whither 
they repaired at certain intervals, and made them places 
of frequent resort. Some of these profoundly gifted 
men carried champagne into these circles, and it engen- 
dered a free-and-easy sort of life, that attracted the 
social and good-natured, who wanted a good time in a 
refined way. By reason of the learning and culture 
associated with it, the club came to hold a high rank, 
and possess a high reputation among the literati for its 
dignified exclusiveness. It was a place where social life 
put on its best dress. In the ever-increasing intercourse 
of this and that country, we have come into possession 
of the customs of that people and that time. The 
American people are not slow to appreciate and appro- 
priate what they deem advantageous to their life, and 
the fascination which time and distance have thrown 
about this institution has invested it with a peculiar 



138 INTEMPERANCE, 

charm for them. What though they dispense with the 
characteristic original feature, there is still enough to it 
to form the basis of something that will compensate for 
the slower and more restricted enjoyments which the 
prosy and practical condition of the domestic circle 
enjoins. 

The man of business, who is poring all day long over 
columns of perplexing figures and harassing ledgers, is 
glad, at the close of the day, to relax every nerve, and 
find himself in a social atmosphere, where every sense 
of his being is ministered unto, without any effort on his 
part to keep up the excitement. The truest and best 
moral action will send such a man home into the bosom 
of his family to find it there ; but, lamentable as it is, 
there are thousands who will not do it, and so these vol- 
untary organized clubs are formed, and furnished with 
everything that genial, cordial, and generous natures 
can bring to make them attractive. It may not be 
strictly after the European pattern, but it is a place 
where they can eat, smoke, sing, dance, and be hilarious 
generally — a place where they do forget their manhood, 
and degenerate into all sorts of lewd and gross immorali- 
ties. Young men going from the country into places of 
business in the city, for the sake of a more extended 
knowledge of the world, are often attracted to these 
places, where everything is so seductive, and they sel- 
dom come out unscorched by the unnatural condition of 
things within. Drink has a conversational, mirth-pro- 
voking tendency ; and the laughing, jesting crowd come 
to think they have found the jolliest place in all the 
world, and they go again and again, until the stamp ot 
intemperance is written legibly upon them. 

It is true there are different grades in these things. 
They range all the way from the affluent surroundings 
of the most wealthy to those of far humbler pretension ; 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 139 

but, in them all, strong drink is working a general de- 
moralization, and only that continually. It is to be 
doubted if there be a worse school for morals in our land 
than this ; and the results of the object-teaching in these 
institutions, and the startling revelations in connection, 
are such as would make mothers, wives, and sisters blush 
and weep, if they knew them. 

In countless other ways, and in channels we know 
not of, the streams are being fed that flow out, winding 
their course by all the hills and through all the vales of 
the social system. Some may exult in their power to 
carry on their nefarious traffic, and keep it hid from the 
gaze of the world, but they are yet to be confronted 
with the results of what they have done. The hearts 
they have blighted, the hopes they have crushed, the 
characters they have ruined, the reputations they have 
blasted, the fortunes they have destroyed, are all so 
many witnesses against them. It matters not so much 
where the work began, — whether among the seductive 
influences of the club or lunch room, or amid lower or 
less pretentious surroundings, — it is ultimately the 
same ; and he who manufactures and he who aids in 
the circulation are alike responsible for the wreck and 
the ruin so widely spread. 

All classes of our people drink. It is becoming sadly 
universal. Why is it ? May it not be because there is 
such a systematic effort to meet the peculiar wants of 
each individual class in its own peculiar way ? It is 
true the lower class are influenced a good deal by the 
higher. It is a great stimulant to the courage of the 
poor and doubting man that his master above him does 
the same thing that he does. If he had any feeling that 
it was wrong, it wonderfully lessens that compunction ; 
for he drinks it to drown care and sorrow, and that man 
has no need to do it. And here again comes in the 



140 INTEMPEBANCE, 

question of responsibility. Those who, by the power of 
their example, mislead others, and thus confirm them in 
a habit they know to be ruinous, have a fearful account 
to settle at some time. It may possibly be they may 
know how far they can go themselves, and how soon 
they must stop, to keep their own barks from flounder- 
ing in the deep waters ; but the humbler craft may not 
be able to come near that point safely. 

It has been said, " If the ' moderate drinker ' would 
abandon his cups, within twelve years drunkenness 
would be all but annihilated. We should only behold 
here and there a solitary victim, holding out in virtue of 
a strong constitution, a sad memorial of the drunken- 
ness of a by-gone day." 

What a blessed day for the American people, if all 
this active and complicated machinery of evil could be 
laid aside in glorious disuse ! A longer stride towards 
millennial glory could not be taken. Nothing that could 
be done would clothe the earth with more of her prime- 
val loveliness than this ; nothing that would so effectu- 
ally raise mankind to the heights for which they were 
destined, and give a grander and more speedy fulfilment 
to the prophecies of coming good. May it not be that 
the swelling tides which are filling the good with so 
much apprehension are to be checked, and it shall be 
written of them and upon them, " Thus far shalt thou 
go, and no farther " ? 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 141 



CHAPTER X. 

Probability of Reform. 

HOPE A DIM STAR. — THE YOUNG LADY'S VICTIM. — INDIVIDUAL RE- 
FORM. — GOUGH. — J. HAWKINS. — CONFESSION OF A CONDEMNED 
CRIMINAL. — FATHER OF THE REV. NEWMAN HALL. — HOPELESSNESS 
OF THE WORK. — CONFESSION OF CHARLES LAMB. — SALVATION NOT 
IN RECLAIMING THE DRUNKARD, BUT IN SAVING YOUTH FROM BE- 
GINNING. 

% 

It is hardly to be supposed there will be any very ex- 
tended and thorough work of reformation in a public 
way, as long as the manufacture and sale of ardent spirit 
are allowed to retain their present position. As long as 
it is paraded at every corner, associated with almost every 
pursuit, and intervoven with all the social customs of 
the times, where is the probability that it will fall into 
disuse, and the immense flood of evil that comes from it 
be stayed in its course ? We talk of the radiant star of 
hope, but nowhere does it shine so dimly as here ; no- 
where else is it obscured by clouds so thick and dense. 
Good men and women are praying that the darkness may 
be dispelled ; that through the pierced gloom there may 
come a ray of light that may be the earnest of a brighter 
day that is yet to dawn ; that speedily the moral world 
may be illuminated, and mankind elevated from this low 
condition to a higher and better life. To look at it 
in the light of a wide-spread public reformation, there 
is a mighty work to be done. All the aggregated effort 
of all the present existing societies has failed to do it yet. 
They have worked wisely and well, but it needs more than 



142 INTEMPEEANCE, 

human hand to pluck up the roots that have spread 
themselves in every direction over every part of our 
American soil. There needs to be a higher moral senti- 
ment. There is a work demanded on the hearts and 
souls of men. They need to be swayed by an irresisti- 
ble force — a something superior to their low appetites 
and passions, that shall renovate and endow them 
with power of will to rend asunder the links of that 
chain which will surely crush them in its tightening folds 
unless they do. Hope cannot promise much as long as 
the usages of society continue what they are. Just 
as long as the favorites of wealth and the devotees of 
fashion will persist in keeping wines and spirits upon 
their tables, just so long is there danger that those who 
surround them will be poisoned, and carry the infectious 
taint with them wherever they go. Neither will this 
danger be averted as long as young ladies will offer and 
urge a glass of wine upon their friends at the social 
party or the congratulatory call. Could these things be 
abolished altogether, it would be a long step on the 
march of progress. It would be striking a blow at the 
root, in very many cases, and there would be less occa- 
sion for the poet to sing 

" Man's inhumanity to man 
Makes countless thousands mourn." 

" A young man, of no ordinary promise, unhappily 
contracted habits of intemperance. His excesses spread 
anguish and shame through a large and most respectable 
circle. The earnest and kind remonstrance of friends, 
however, at length led him to desist ; and, feeling that 
for him to drink was to die, he came to a solemn resolu- 
tion that he would abstain entirely for the rest of his 
days. Not long after he was invited to dine, with other 
young persons, at the house of a friend." Says the one 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 143 

who tells the story, with emphatic uttemace, " Did I say 
friend? Pardon me ; he could hardly be a friend who 
would deliberately place on the table before one so lately 
lost, now so marvellously redeemed, the treacherous in- 
strument of his downfall. But so it was. The wine 
was in their feasts. He withstood the fascination, how- 
ever, until a young lady, whom he desired to please, 
challenged him to drink. He refused. With banter and 
ridicule she soon cheated him out of all his noble purposes, 
and her challenge was accepted. He no sooner drank 
than he felt the demon was still alive, and that from tem- 
porary sleep he was now waking with tenfold strength. 
4 Now,' said he to a friend who sat next to him, ' now 
I have tasted again, and I drink till I die.' The awful 
pledge was kept. Not ten days had passed before that 
ill-fated youth fell under the horrors of delirium tremens, 
and was borne to a grave of shame and dark despair. "' 
"And who," says the writer of the sad tale, "would 
envy the emotions with which that young lady, if not 
wholly dead to duty and to pity, retraced her part in a 
scene of gayety, which smiled only to betray ? " Sad as 
it is, the young ladies themselves are falling under the 
power of these pernicious habits, and it is confidently 
asserted, on reliable authority, that there are many in 
the highest circles so given to indulgence in this direction 
that they actually come under the condemnation of the 
drunkard. Startling as the fact may appear, it is de- 
clared that " nearly two thousand of the applicants 
for admission to the inebriate asylum at Binghamton 
have been rich men's daughters ; and it is a truth equally 
astounding, that these favored ones of fortune will travel 
in foreign countries, and be seen in such condition as to 
need some one to steady their faltering steps through 
the streets. Dash every trace of the stimulating bev- 
erage from the tables of the rich, and it is believed 



144 INTEMPERANCE, 

that this most forbidding form of intemperance would 
cease to exist. By a well-known principle, reformation 
works downward. The lower are always imitating the 
higher, and an influence emanating from above would 
gradually be felt upon those below. 

But, deferring the considerations of public reforma- 
tion mostly to another place, we propose to have mainly 
to do with individual reformation in the present chapter ; 
to behold the difficulties and probabilities of this, when 
once a man is under the full dominion of the habit, 
and to see how, in the practical illustration, if it be not 
utterly impossible, it approximates closely to it. There 
are notable instances of men who have been rescued 
from the lowest pit, and have become shining lights — 
a marvel to themselves and everybody else ; but who 
does not know that they stand upon ground that is ever 
after quaking under their feet ? 

Gough was one of these ; but it was long he lived in 
utter dread and distrust of himself, lest his strength of 
will and firmness of purpose should not be sufficient in 
the day of his temptation. He was afraid of himself; 
and who shall tell the horror of this trembling apprehen- 
sion as it haunts a man in all his walks and ways ? A 
continual watching and battling is necessary all the time, 
even after it seems the giant has been effectually slain ; 
and in the first bitterness of the contest there are no 
words to paint the torturing helplessness of the condi- 
tion. John Hawkins thus tells the story of his life when 
he first made an attempt to free himself from the bonds 
which had enslaved him so long. At the age of twenty- 
two he was a confirmed drunkard. " He wandered far 
off from his friends, to the West, where he suffered 
every evil from poverty, vice, and degradation ; lived 
years in Baltimore, without providing food or clothing 
for his family — a living death to them." " My wife," 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 145 

he says, " would sit up for me until midnight, and watch 
to see whether I came home drunk or sober. Often 
have I fallen prostrate in the hall, and my little daughter 
would cover me with a blanket until the morning light. 
In June, 1840, I drank and suffered awfully — I can't 
tell how much I suffered in mind — in body everything, 
but in mind more. I drank dreadfully the first two 
weeks in June — bought by the gallon, and drank, drank, 
and was about taking my life — was drunk all the time. 
On the 14th, I was a wonder to myself ; astonished I had 
any mind left ; and yet, in- the goodness of God, it 
seemed uncommonly clear. I lay in bed long after 
my wife and daughter were up, and my conscience drove 
me to madness. I hated the darkness of the night, and 
when light came I hated the light. I hated myself — 
my existence. I asked myself, ' Can I refrain ? is it 
possible ? ' I felt there was not a being to take me by 
the hand, and say, You can. I felt that I had made my- 
self friendless ; that I was without help or light — an 
outcast; and for a time the overwhelming conviction 
maddened me. I had a pint of whiskey, and thought I 
would drink ; and yet I knew it was life or death with 
me as I decided. I had always loved my daughter, and 
I felt that if I had a friend on the earth at all, it was 
she. As she came into the room, she said, ' Father, 
don't send me after any more whiskey to-day.' I was 
tormented before, but this was an unexpected torture. 
I commanded her to leave the chamber, and she went 
away with her eyes filled with tears. I covered myself 
in the bed to hide myself away from the sight or sound of 
a living thing, but more especially from my own loath- 
some self. I then thought of my past life, my degrada- 
tion, misery of my friends, and felt bad enough. Hear- 
ing a noise in the room, I looked out and saw my 
daughter again present. Calling her to me, I said, ' I am , 



146 INTEMPERANCE, 

not angry with you, and I shall not drink any more.' 
As we mingled our tears together, I arose and went to 
the cupboard, looked at the enemy, and thought, Is it 
possible I can be restored ? and then turned my back 
upon it. Several times, while dressing, I looked at the 
bottle, but thought I should be lost if I } 7 ielded. No one 
could be worse off than I was, no more degraded, no 
more a slave to appetite. Soon after, I went to the So- 
ciety for Drunkards, and there I found all my old bottle 
companions. I told no one, not even my family, that I 
was going. I felt that I had taken the first steps in the 
way of reform, but I was by no means persuaded that I 
could keep on in the way. There I met those with 
whom I had fished, caroused, and got drunk. In that 
condition we had stuck together like brothers ; and now 
they laughed, clapped, and shouted, ' Here is Hawkins, 
the regulator, the old bruiser. 1 But there was no response 
in me for all this. I was too sober and solemn for that. 
The pledge was read for my accommodation. They did 
not say anything, but I knew they were looking over 
my shoulder to see if I really would write my name. 
I never had such feelings before. It was a great 
battle. I once fought the battle at North Point, and 
helped to run away, too ; but now there was no such al- 
ternative. I found the society had a large pitcher of 
water, drank toasts, and told experiences ; and there I 
laid my plan, for I did not intend to be a drone. Al- 
cohol had promised me everything, but I had found it to 
be a great deceiver, and there was no way but to wage 
eternal war against it, and I determined to do it. At 
eleven o'clock I went home. Before, when I had staid 
out late, I had gone to m}- home thoroughly intoxicated, 
and my wife was watching for the same result, and was 
planning some measure that would free her from the in- 
creasing wretchedness. My yard is covered with brick, 



ITS. ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 149 

and as I went over this, she listened, as she afterwards 
told me, to determine whether the gate door opened 
drunk or sober ; for she had learned to distinguish the 
peculiarity of sound that marked the condition. She 
was standing in the middle of the room as I entered, 
and, convinced that soberness was in the ascendant, she 
greeted me with a smile, that I involuntarily returned. ' I 
had put my name to the Temperance Pledge, never to 
drink again as long as I live,' said I. We both wept 
until our weeping awoke our daughter, and then we 
cried all together ; and there was no sorrow in those 
tears but those wrung out by the fear of relapse. I tell 
you this," he says, " that you may know how happy the 
reformation of a drunkard makes his family. I slept 
none that night ; my thoughts were better than sleep. 
Next morning, I went to see my aged mother — her who 
had been praying twenty years for her drunken son ; and 
as I told her, she exclaimed, with unutterable joy in her 
face, ' It is enough ; I am now ready to die.' " 

If such be the joy of a single soul — of a single 
household — at the first dawnings of hope, what a loud- 
sounding anthem would it be that should celebrate the 
restoration of the larger number that are sighing and 
waiting for the same blessed redemption ! What a 
glad era it would be for our domestic prosperity, could 
these scenes be multiplied all over the land ! 

A young man was convicted of murder, and while 
confined in jail, under sentence of death, he wrote a let- 
ter to warn others against a similar fate. The act had 
been committed while under the influence of strong 
drink, but the law held him responsible ; and his story 
is but a repetition of the fact that it takes away reason, 
and goads on to madness and destruction continually. 
He writes, " O that I could only portray the horrors 
springing from the first glass ! You would shun it as you 



150 INTEMPERANCE, 

would the road in which Death, in his most hideous form, 
was lurking. Would to God I had died before I knew 
the love or passion strong drink can bring to its poor, 
deluded victims ; for then I would have had kind friends 
to weep and think kindly of me, as, in solemn silence, 
they gazed into my tomb. 

" O, young man ! by all that you hold dear, shun the 
cup — the fatal cup ! You may think you are able to 
take a drink and leave it alone when you wish ; let me 
entreat you, don't try the experiment, for when it gets 
hold it rarely ever lets go. It not only destroys you, but 
friends must suffer also. Think well before you touch 
the cup. Don't say, c I can take a drink and leave 
off ; ' the chances are against you. 

" Would to God that one year ago I could have seen 
strong drink as it really is, stripped of all the ornaments 
thrown over it by those engaged in the traffic ! — could 
have seen it as a swift and sure road that was to lead to 
my unhappy condition in a felon's cell, with the prospect 
of a shameful death ! 

" My hands are ironed, irons are on my limbs, and I 
am chained to the floor ; and whiskey has done it all. I 
have lost friends, character, home, all that makes life 
dear, by not saying, No ! when asked to drink. I could 
have said it. God gave me understanding ; I knew right 
from wrong ; but I flattered m} r self I could go so far, and 
then rein up : now I am lost. Don't believe in moderate 
drinking ; there is too much danger in it. There is no 
drunkard living but thought he could leave off when he 
wished. Say you that, 8 Many drink, and do not what 
I have done ? ' All true — but none do as I did but what 
drink — not one. All say at first, " Whiskey shall not be 
my master ; I am too much of a man for that.' How 
soon they find out that he who said, i Wine is a mocker, 
strong drink is raging, and he that is deceived thereby 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 151 

is not wise,' knew more about it than they ! It will 
hold one in fetters that are well nigh impossible to 
wrench off. There is no other way in which the refor- 
mation of these advanced drinkers can be secured but 
by abstaining altogether. A little will keep the flame 
forever burning, and it is so hard to come to the conclu- 
sion — not a drop — when habit cries out so strongly for 
the indulgence ! " 

The father of the Rev. Newman Hall was an intem- 
perate man. The narrative of his experience has come 
before the world, under the title " The Rescued Brand." 
He was an infidel and a drunkard, but was won over to 
the true faith and to a life of soberness when he seemed 
almost beyond hope. 

It is such a striking and illustrious example of a true 
reformation, and withal illustrates the difficulties attend- 
ing it so clearly, we give a sketch of his life, as pre- 
sented by his son : " When a young man, at Maidstone, 
his business pursuits placed him in circumstances of 
great temptation. Lively, amiable, generous, a genial 
companion, enjoying a sprightly joke, and singing a 
merry song, his society was much sought after. Social 
enjoyments were invariably connected with the free use 
of intoxicating liquors. He was thus led astray, and 
f erred through strong drink.' Of his companions he 
informs us, s In the town where I reside were twelve 
young men, who were accustomed, early in life, to meet 
together for indulgence in drinking, and all manner of 
excess. In the course of time some of them engaged in 
business ; but their habits of sin were so entwined with 
their very existence that they became bankrupts. Eight 
of them died under the age of forty, without a hope be- 
yond the grave ; three others were reduced to the most 
abject poverty. Two of these had formerly moved in 
very respectable circles, but they are now in the most 



152 INTEMPEEANCE, 

miserable state of poverty, wretchedness, and dis- 
grace.' 

" Of this party he was a sort of ringleader, taking the 
head of the table at convivial meetings, and sitting up 
whole nights drinking, and inducing others to do the 
same — never going to bed sober. He was an infidel, a 
disciple of Tom Paine, both in principle and practice, a 
blasphemer of the word of God, yet a good-natured man, 
who would do anybody a kindness. At length he went to 
reside at a distance, where, for a time, he refrained from 
dissipation, was married, and everything seemed prosper- 
ous around him ; but, instead of being thankful to God 
for his mercy, and watching against his besetting sin, he 
gave way to his old propensity. One dark night, in 
the neighborhood of Stourbridge, he had been drinking. 
The road he took went over a canal ; he missed the 
bridge, and rolled down the bank to the edge of the 
water. And here he seemed to have arrived at the end 
of his wicked course ; but God, who is rich in mercy, 
had caused a stone to lie directly in his path, and thus 
spared him ; one turn more, and he would have plunged 
into hell. His senses returned for a moment; and, 
seeing the water beneath him, he crawled back again 
into the road ; there he was picked up, and lodged 
in a public house for the night. This was considered 
merely as a lucky escape, and he continued to pursue 
his career of sin as ardently as before. There were then 
no Total Abstinence Societies to shield him. When 
every one drank, was it to be expected he would ab- 
stain ? The advice generally given was, ' Use, but not 
abuse.' Yet with his peculiar temperament and habits, 
one glass would so rouse his appetite that self-control 
was gone, and he rushed forward to the abyss which, 
when perfectly sober, he abhorred. 

" One of these sad relapses occurred on the occasion of 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 153 

a young minister visiting at his house, and taking brandy 
and water at luncheon. Thinking there could be no 
harm in following such an example, he filled his own 
glass, and was again overcome. After a course of drink- 
ing for some days, having come to his senses, he began to 
reason with himself on his guilt and folly ; and, in an 
angry, passionate manner, he muttered, ' O, it's no use 
for me to repent — my sins are too great to be forgiven.' 
He had no sooner uttered these words, than a voice 
seemed to say, with strong emphasis, ' If thou wilt for- 
sake thy sins, they shall be forgiven.' The poor man 
started at what he believed to be a real sound, and has- 
tily turned round ; but seeing no one, he said to himself, 
4 Surely I have been drinking until I am going mad.' 
He fell on his knees, and, half-suffocated by his feelings, 
he cried, i O God, be merciful to me a sinner ! ' At this 
very time, special prayer was being offered on his behalf 
by his wife and others. The poor wretch was broken- 
hearted ; and now his besetting sin appeared more hor- 
rible than ever ; but it mast be conquered, or he must 
perish. Then commenced a contest more terrible than 
that of conflicting armies ; the soul was at stake ; an 
impetuous torrent was to be turned in an opposite course. 
He now began to search the Bible, which he had once 
despised. Here he saw that crimson and scarlet sins 
could be blotted out; that the grace of God was all- 
sufficient. He refrained from intemperance, commenced 
family prayer, and hope again revived. But his deadly 
foe still pursued him, and he was again overcome. Now, 
his disgrace and sinfulness appeared worse than ever, 
and with melancholy feeling, he cried out, in anguish of 
spirit, that he was doomed to eternal misery, and it was 
useless to try to avert his fate. His cruel enemy took 
this opportunity to suggest to his mind that he had so 
disgraced himself that it would be better to get rid of 



154 INTEMPERANCE, 

his life at once. The razor was in his hand ; but the 
Spirit of the Lord interposed, and the weapon fell to the 
ground. He would sometimes refrain for days and weeks, 
and then again he was as bad as ever. All hope seemed 
now to be gone ; and especially, when, one day, after hav- 
ing been brought into great weakness through intempe- 
rance, death seemed to be very near. Not a moment was 
to be lost ; he cast himself once more at the footstool of 
his long-insulted Creator, and, with an intensity of 
agony, cried out, 4 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon 
me : Lord, be thou my helper.' He sank down exhaust- 
ed ; he could say no more, but that prayer was heard. 

" A physician was consulted as to the possibility of med- 
icine being rendered effectual to cure his intemperance. 
The poor man would have suffered the amputation of all 
his limbs, could so severe a method have rid him of his 
deadly habit. The physician declared that if he would 
strictly adhere to his prescription, not only the practice, 
but the very inclination for strong drink would subside 
in a few months. The remedy was a preparation of 
steel ; and eagerly did he begin to devour the antidote 
to his misery. Every bottle was taken with an earnest 
prayer to God for his blessing to accompany it. In a 
private box, opened after his decease, a small parcel was 
found, on which was written, ' The mercy of God un- 
speakable to J. V. H.' It contained a phial bottle in 
which was a little sediment, and the following affecting 
document : ' This phial is one (of upward of three hun- 
dred) of those out of which J. V. H. drank a preparation 
of steel, in the }^ear 1816. It is preserved, like the pot 
of manna, to show the way in which the Lord delivered 
his servant out of the wilderness — out of a horrible 
pit — out of his besetting sin. O, praised be the Lord.' 
When this prescription was first taken, wine and spirits 
were given up. But it was found that beer was suffi- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 100 

cient to excite the morbid propensity. After several 
failures from this cause, beer, also, was relinquished. 
Then it was, and not until then, that the cure was com- 
plete ; and from that day to the day of his death, being 
a period of forty-two years, not so much as a spoonful 
of spirituous liquors, or wine of any description, ever 
passed the surface of that man's tongue." 

In him reformation did its full work eventually, and 
he became an earnest and efficient worker in every good 
cause ; but no one but the man himself can tell the price 
at which it was purchased. Once, while ill of typhus 
fever, the physician proposed wine as an essential rem- 
edy for his restoration; but he rejected the idea, and 
declared he "would rather die." 

An accident led to his decease in his eighty-seventh 
year. A slight operation was followed by erysipelas. 
Again wine was recommended. Mr. Hall, who had been 
lying in a state of great weakness, apparently unaware of 
what was said, emphatically groaned out, "Never! nev- 
er! " A few clays before his departure he said to his son, 
" Newman, if you preach a funeral sermon for me, your 
text must be, ' Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire '? " 

There is nothing but divine power, in connection with 
total abstinence, that can bring up these lowly-fallen 
ones to the true level of virtuous manhood again. It 
requires the most powerful considerations that can be 
brought to bear upon a man's heart and conscience to 
make him turn backward, when he has once reached the 
foot of the hill. The almost superhuman effort that is 
involved in climbing up again, makes the poor man feel 
that it is easier to go with the current of his passions, and 
keep on sliding ; and the probability is, that he will con- 
tinue his drams, if it be but to bury the accusations that 
taunt him in every sane moment. We know of a young 
man who would awake after a night's re veilings with 



156 INTEMPERANCE, 

the bitter cry " I wish I was in heaven ! " So utterly 
powerless did he feel himself to be in overcoming his 
propensity, that he regarded everything unsafe until he 
could be freed from the body, and beyond the reach of 
temptation. Perhaps he overlooked the important con- 
sideration that there is no salvation for these wilfully 
perverted ones. The consciousness of being fettered 
was upon him, and the torment and friction of this in- 
duced the despairing cry. He was promising, talented, 
the pride of his parents, and might greatly have adorned 
the ministerial profession for which he was designed, 
had he not yielded, as so many do, to the solicitations 
of boon companions. It is to be hoped he began the 
work of reform before it was too late ; but none such 
can stand where they might have stood had they re- 
mained strangers to the degrading process. It burns out 
all the freshness and vigor of a man's character, and 
when he would come up, it requires the constant appro- 
priation of all his energies to keep himself on the right 
track. If he could have this same strength and energy 
to spend in blessing others, the cultivation of the moral 
vine} r ard would be very different from what it is now. 
Charles Lamb, in his " Essays of Elia " has given the 
" Confessions of a Drunkard," in which he vividly de- 
picts the meaning of reform as applied to the individual 
soul. This brilliant English essayist was in the habit 
of taking a great deal of wine at his table, and it was 
not uncommon for him to doze away his after-dinner 
hours under its stupefying influence. 

" Kindly, upright, and witty," he was a pleasant com- 
panion for a large and gay circle. His amusing sallies 
and humorous jokes always commanded attention, and 
this, with his general culture, made him universally 
popular. But here was his failing — he could not pass 
by the door of a country tavern in his walks but he 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 157 

must enter for a draught. It is said that often, while 
he was walking with the youthful and accomplished 
daughter of Sheridan Knowles, she was often left out- 
side the haunts of gin, while he could gratify his insa- 
tiable thirst — a thirst more powerful than love, and 
more beguiling than affection. Not until young ladies 
cease to smile upon such as these will the star of hope 
be in the ascendant, and the matter of reform assume 
the importance it demands. 

The result of the convictions of this famed writer we 
give in his own emphatic language. 

" Dehortations from the use of strong liquors have 
been the favorite topic of sober declaimers in all ages, 
and have been received with abundance of applause by 
water-drinking critics. But with the patient himself, 
the man that is to be cured, unfortunately, their sound 
has seldom prevailed. Yet the evil is acknowledged, 
the remedy simple. Abstain. No force can oblige a man 
to raise the glass to his head against his will. 'Tis as 
easy as not to steal— not to tell lies. Alas ! the hand to 
pilfer, and the tongue to bear false witness, have no con- 
stitutional tendency. These are actions indifferent to 
them. At the first instance of the reformed will, they can 
be brought off without a murmur. The itching finger is 
but a figure of speech, and the tongue of the liar can 
with the same natural delight give forth useful truths, 
with which it has been accustomed to scatter their per- 
nicious contraries. But when a man has commenced 
sot — O pause, thou surly moralist, thou person of 
strong nerves and a strong head, whose liver is hap- 
pily untouched, and ere thy gorge riseth at the name 
which I have written, first learn what the thing is ; how 
much of compassion, how much of human allowance, 
thou mayst virtuously mingle with thy disapprobation. 
Trample not on the ruins of a man. Exact not, under 



158 INTEMPERANCE, 

so terrible a penalty as infamy, a resuscitation from a 
state of death almost as real as that from which Lazarus 
rose not but by a miracle. Begin a reformation, and 
custom will make it easy. 

" But what if the beginning be dreadful, the first steps 
not like climbing a mountain, but like going through 
fire ? What if the whole system must undergo a change 
violent as that which we conceive of the mutation of 
form in some insects ? What if a process comparable to 
flaying alive be to be gone through ? Is the weakness 
that sinks under such struggles to be confounded with 
the pertinacity which clings to other vices, which have 
induced no constitutional necessity, no engagement of 
the whole victim, body and soul ? 

" I have known one in that state, when he had tried 
to abstain but for one evening, — though the poisonous 
potion had long ceased to bring back its first enchant- 
ment, though he was sure it would rather deepen his 
gloom than brighten it, — in the violence of the strug- 
gle, and the necessity he has felt of getting rid of the 
present sensation at any rate, — I have known him to 
scream out, to cry aloud, for the anguish and pain of 
the strife within him. Why should I hesitate to declare 
that the man of whom I speak is myself? I have no 
puling apology to make to mankind. I see them all, in 
one way or another, deviating from the pure reason. It 
is to my own nature alone I am accountable for the woe 
that I have brought upon it. I believe that there are 
constitutions, robust heads and iron insides, whom scarce 
any excesses can hurt ; whom brandy (I have seen them 
drink it like wine), at all events, whom wine, taken in 
ever so plentiful a manner, can do no worse injury to, 
than just to muddle their faculties, perhaps never very 
pellucid. On them this discourse is wasted. They would 
but laugh at a weak brother, who, trying his strength 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 159 

with them, and coming off foiled from the contest, would 
fain persuade them that such agonistic exercises are dan- 
gerous. It is to a very different description of persons 
that I speak. It is to the weak, the nervous, to those 
who feel the want of some artificial aid to raise their 
spirits in society to what is no more than the ordinary 
pitch of all around them without it. This is the secret 
of our drinking. Such must fiy the convivial board in 
the first instance, if they do not mean to sell themselves 
for the term of life. Twelve years ago I had completed 
my six and twentieth year. I had lived from the period 
of leaving school to that time pretty much in solitude. 
My companions were chiefly books, or, at most, one or 
two living ones of my own book-loving and sober stamp. 
I rose early, went to bed betimes ; and the faculties which 
God had given me, I have reason to think, did not rust 
in me unused. About that time I fell in with some com- 
panions of a different order. They were men of boister- 
ous spirits, sitters-up a-nights, disputants, drunken, yet 
seemed to have something noble about them. We dealt 
about the wit, or what passed for it, after midnight, 
jovially. Of the quality called fancy, I certainly pos- 
sessed a larger share than my companions. Encouraged 
by their applause, I set up for a professed joker ! I, who 
of all men am least fitted for such an occupation, having, 
in addition to the greatest difficulty which I experienced 
at all times of finding words to express my meaning, a 
natural nervous impediment in my speech ! Reader, if 
you are gifted with nerves like mine, aspire to any 
character but that of a wit. When you find a tickling 
relish upon your tongue, disposing you to that sort of 
conversation, especially if you find a preternatural flow 
of ideas settling in upon you at the sight of a bottle and 
fresh glasses, avoid giving way to it, as you would fly 
your greatest destruction. If you cannot crush the 



160 INTEMPERANCE, 

power of fancy, or that within you which you mistake 
for such, divert it, give it some other play. Write an 
essay, pen a character or description, — but not, as I do 
now, with tears trickling down your cheeks. 

" To be an object of compassion to friends, of derision 
to foes ; to be suspected by strangers, stared at by fools ; 
to be esteemed dull when you cannot be witty ; to be 
applauded for witty when you know that you have been 
dull ; to be called upon for the extemporaneous exercise 
of that faculty which no premeditation can give ; to be 
spurred on to efforts which end in contempt ; to be set 
on to provoke mirth, which procures the procurer ha- 
tred ; to give pleasure, and be paid with squinting 
malice ; to swallow draughts of life-destroying wine, 
which are to be distilled into airy breath to tickle vain 
auditors ; to mortgage miserable morrows for nights of 
madness ; to waste whole seas of time upon those who 
pay it back in little inconsiderable drops of grudging 
applause, — are the wages of buffoonery and death. 

"Time, which has a sure stroke at dissolving all con- 
nections which have no solider fastening than this liquid 
cement, more kind to me than my own taste or penetra- 
tion, at length opened my eyes to the supposed qualities 
of my first friends. No traces of them is left but in the 
vices which they introduced, and the habits they infixed. 
In them my friends survive still, and exercise ample ret- 
ribution for any supposed infidelity that I may have been 
guilty of towards them. 

" My next more immediate companions were, and are, 
persons of such intrinsic and felt worth, that, though ac- 
cidentally their acquaintance has proved pernicious to 
me, I do not know that if the thing were to do over 
again, I should have the courage to eschew the mischief 
at the price of forfeiting the benefit. I came to them 
reeking from the steams of my late overheated notions 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 161 

of companionship ; and the slightest fuel which they un- 
consciously afforded was sufficient to feed my old fires 
into a propensity. They were no drinkers, but one from 
professional habits, and another from a custom derived 
from his father, smoked tobacco. The devil could not 
have devised a more subtle trap to retake a backsliding 
penitent. The transition from gulping down draughts 
of liquid fire, to puffing out innocuous blasts of dry 
smoke, was so like cheating him. But he is too hard 
for us, when we hope to commute. He beats us at bar- 
ter ; and when we think to set off a new failing against 
an old infirmity, 'tis odds but he puts the trick upon us 
for two to one. 

"That (comparatively) white devil of tobacco brought 
with him, in the end, seven worse than himself. It were 
impertinent to carry the reader through all the processes 
by which, from smoking at first with malt liquor, I 
took my degrees through thin wines, through stronger 
wine and water, through small punch, to those juggling 
compositions, which, under the name of mixed liquors, 
slur a great deal of brandy, or other poison, under less 
and less water continually, until they come next to none, 
and so to none at all. But it is hateful to disclose the 
secrets of my Tartarus. 

" Persons not accustomed to examine the motives of 
their actions, to reckon up the countless nails that rivet 
the chains of habit, or perhaps being bound by none so 
obdurate as those I have confessed to, may recoil from 
this as an overcharged picture. But what short of such 
a bondage is it, which in spite of protesting friends, a 
weeping wife, and a reprobating world, chains down 
many a poor fellow, of no original indisposition to good- 
ness, to his pipe and his pot ? 

" I have seen a print, after Correggio, in which three 
female figures are ministering to a man who sits fast 
bound at -the root of a tree. Sensuality is soothing him, 
10 



162 INTEMPERANCE, 

Evil Habit is nailing him to a branch, and Repugnance, 
at the same instant of time, is applying a snake to his 
side. In his face is feeble delight, the recollection of 
past, rather than perception of present pleasures ; languid 
enjoyment of evil, with utter imbecility to good ; a Syb- 
aritic effeminacy, a submission to bondage ; the springs 
of the will gone down like a broken clock, the sin and 
the suffering co-instantaneous, or the latter forerunning 
the former, remorse preceding action, — all this repre- 
sented in one point of time. When I saw this, I ad- 
mired the wonderful skill of the painter. But when I 
went away, I wept, because I thought of my own con- 
dition. Of that there is no hope that it will ever change. 
The waters have, gone over me. But out of the black 
depths, could I be heard, I would cry out to all those 
who have but set a foot in the perilous flood. Could the 
youth, to whom the flavor of his first wine is delicious 
as the opening scenes of life, as the entering upon some 
newly-discovered paradise, look into my desolation, and 
be made to understand what a dreary thing it is, when 
a man shall feel himself going down a precipice with 
open eyes and a passive will ; to see his destruction, 
and have no power to stop it, and yet to feel it all the 
way emanating from himself; to perceive all goodness 
emptied out of him, and yet not to be able to forget a 
time when it was otherwise ; to bear about the piteous 
spectacle of his own self-ruins; — could he see my fevered 
eye, feverish with last night's drinking, and feverishly 
looking for this night's repetition of the folly ; could he 
feel the body of the death out of which I cry each hour 
with feebler and feebler outcry to be delivered, — it were 
enough to make him dash the sparkling beverage to the 
earth in all the pride of its mantling temptation ; to 
make him 

• Clasp his teeth, and not undo 'em, 
To sutler wet Damnation to run thro' 'cm.' 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 163 

" Yea ! but (methinks I hear somebody object) if so- 
briety be that fine thing you would have us to under- 
stand, if the comforts of a cool brain are to be preferred 
to that state of heated excitement which you describe 
and deplore, what hinders, in your own instance, that 
you do not return to those habits from which you would 
induce others never to swerve ? If the blessing be worth 
preserving, is it not worth recovering ? 

"Recovering ! O, if a wish could transport me back to 
those days of youth, when a draught from the next clear 
spring could slake any heats which summer suns and 
youthful exercise had power to stir up in the blood, how 
gladly would I return to the pure element, the drink of 
children, and of child-like, holy hermit. In my dreams 
I can sometimes fancy the cool refreshment purling over 
my burning tongue. But my waking stomach rejects it. 
That which refreshes innocence only makes me sick and 
faint. But is there no middle way betwixt total absti- 
nence and the excess which kills you ? For your sake, 
reader, and that you may never attain to my experience, 
with pain I must utter the dreadful truth, that there is 
none — none that I can find. In my stage of habit (I 
speak not of habits less confirmed, for some of them I 
believe the advice to be most prudential) in the stage 
which I have reached, to stop short of that measure 
which is sufficient to draw on torpor and sleep, the be- 
numbing, apoplectic sleep of the drunkard is to have 
taken none at all. 

" The pain of the self-denial is all one. And what that 
is, I had rather the reader should believe on my credit, 
than know from his own trial. He will come to know it 
whenever he shall arrive at that state, in which, para- 
doxical as it may appear, reason shall only visit him 
through intoxication ; for it is a fearful truth that the 
intellectual faculties, by repeated acts of intemperance, • 



164 INTEMPEKANCE, 

may be driven from their, orderly sphere of action, their 
clear daylight ministries, nntil they shall be brought at 
last to depend, for the faint manifestation of their de- 
parting energies, upon the returning periods of the fatal 
madness to which they owe their devastation. The 
drinking man is never less himself than during Ins sober 
intervals. Evil is so far his good.* 

" Behold me, then, in the robust period of life, reduced 
to imbecility and decay. Hear me count my gains, 
and the profits I have derived from the midnight cup. 
Twelve years ago I was possessed of a healthy frame 
of mind and body. I was never strong, but I think my 
constitution (for a weak one) was as happily exempt 
from the tendency to any malady as it was possible to 
be. I scarcely knew what it was to ail in anything. 
Now, except when I am losing myself in a sea of drink, 
I am never free from those uneasy sensations in head 
and stomach which are so much worse to bear than 
any definite pains or aches. At that time I was sel- 
dom in bed after six in the morning, summer or winter. 
I awoke refreshed, and seldom without some merry 
thoughts in my head, or some piece of a song to wel- 
come the new-born day. Now, the first feeling which 
besets me, after stretching out the hours of recumbence 
to their last possible extent, is a forecast of the weari- 
some day that lies before me, with a secret wish that I 
could have lain on still, or never awaked. Life itself — 
my waking life, — has much of the confusion, the trouble, 
and obscure perplexity of an ill dream. In the daj^time 
I stumble upon dark mountains. Business, which, though 

* " When poor Mr. painted his last picture, with a pencil in one trem- 
bling hand and a glass of brandy and water in the other, his fingers owed 
the comparative steadiness with which they were enabled to go through their 
task, in an imperfect manner, to a temporary firmness derived from a repe- 
tition of practices, the general effect of which had shaken both them and him 
so terribly. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 165 

never particularly adapted to my nature, yet as some- 
thing of necessity to be gone through, and therefore best 
undertaken with cheerfulness, I used to enter upon with 
some degree of alacrity, now wearies, affrights, perplexes 
me. I fancy all sorts of discouragements, and I am ready 
to give up an occupation which gives me bread, from a 
harassing conceit of incapacity. The slightest commis- 
sion given me by a friend, or any small duty which I 
have to perform v for myself, — as giving orders to a 
tradesman, &c, — haunts me as a labor impossible to be 
got through. So much the springs of action are broken. 

" The same cowardice attends me in all my intercourse 
with mankind. I dare not promise that a friend's honor, 
or his cause would be safe in my keeping, if I were put 
to the expense of any manly resolution in defending it. 
So much the springs of moral action are deadened within 
me. My favorite occupations in times past now cease to 
entertain. I can do nothing readily. Application, for 
ever so short a time, kills me. This poor abstract of my 
condition was penned at long intervals, with scarcely 
any attempt at connection of thought, which is now so 
difficult to me. The noble passages which formerly de- 
lighted me in history or poetic fiction, now only draw a 
few weak tears, allied to dotage. My broken and dis- 
pirited nature seems to sink before anything great and 
admirable. I perpetually catch myself in tears, for any 
cause, or none. It is inexpressible how much this infir- 
mity adds to a sense of shame, and a general feeling of 
deterioration. These are some of the instances, con- 
cerning which I can say with truth, that it was not 
always so with me. Shall I lift up the veil of my weak- 
ness any further? or is this disclosure sufficient? 

" I am a poor, nameless egotist, who have no vanity 
to consult by these confessions. I know not whether I 
shall be laughed at, or heard seriously. Such as they 



166 INTEMPERANCE, 

are, I commend them to the reader's attention, if he 
finds his own case any way touched. I have told him 
what I am come to. Let him stop in time." 

A more melancholy, heart-rending confession of the 
influences of drink upon the whole man could scarcely 
be given than is found in this recital. The love of it is 
as though the poisonous fangs of a viper had been fas- 
tened upon the whole system, disfiguring and paralyzing 
it beyond all cure. 

It is true that now and then one is freed from this 
terrible power of the enemy, and restored to society and 
friends again ; but we see what it costs. If those in the 
higher walks of life, who are surrounded with every ad- 
vantage, and have every inducement to cast off their 
shackles, and take their rightful and enviable position 
among the worthy, the educated, and refined, — if these 
find it so hard to begin and continue the work of reform 
with themselves, what shall we say of those in the lower 
conditions of society, who have but little motive and 
little encouragement to undertake the herculean task? 
There are multitudes of such now who will go on their 
way unchecked ; persons that are weak and irresolute 
by nature ; those who have been ambitionless and ineffi- 
cient always, and have made themselves more so by their 
habits. There is but little hope that these will ever 
exercise the requisite energy and decision to meet the 
emergency of reform. If the fallen pillars of Temperance 
are to be raised again to their true position, it belongs to 
the youth of the present day to begin the work. * Those 
who have already formed the habit of drinking cannot be 
relied upon at all to aid in the enterprise. They may 
make an occasional spasmodic effort, but the chances are, 
that they will prove a hinderance, and not a help. Our 
hope of reformation lies not so much in reclaiming the 
drunkard, as in saving those who have never tasted. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 16? 



CHAPTER XI. 

Blighting Effects upon Society. 

CELESTIAL INQUIRER. — CLAIMS OF THE LIQUOR FIEND. — INTEMPER- 
ANCE PRODUCES POVERTY. — INCIDENT WITH A BOSTON LECTURER. 

FRUITFUL SOURCE OF PAUPERISM. THE "SOCIAL EVIL " STIMU- 
LATES THE MURDEROUS PROPENSITY. PROMPTS TO SUICIDE. — 

OPPOSES RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. — INDUCES PROFANITY. — THE EN- 
EMY OF THE MISSIONARY. — THE INDIAN'S PROTEST. — APPEAL TO 
THE CHURCH. 

' ' Where are they lost, 
If of such incubi we count the cost? 
Jails, hospitals, madhouses — they know well ; 
And poorhouses o'ercrowded — they can tell." 

The imagination of a modern writer has met a visitant 
from the heights above who thus accosted him : " Stran- 
ger! inhabitant of the earth! what mean those dark, un- 
sightly dens which I see scattered so frequently in the 
dells and corners of the earth, that send forth vapor, 
and fire, and smoke, and stench ? I see the busy mul- 
titude wending their way thither from every point, laden 
with the fruits of the earth, which were evidently de- 
signed by the beneficent Creator for the sustenance of 
man, and casting their burdens, unhesitatingly, into thj 
fiery crater. Again I have looked to see if anything was 
borne away from these receptacles from which I might 
infer that the fruits of the earth had been worked over, 
and better adapted to the wants of man. But, though 
long I've looked with painful eyes, I've looked in vain. 
But I see issuing from every one of them, through dark, 
leaden pipes, '-;rtain fiery streams. These flow out into 



168 INTEMPERANCE, 

numerous reservoirs ; and then, in innumerable smaller 
streams, they are conveyed to your cities, and towns, and 
villages, and all over your vast prairies, over your hills, 
and through your valleys, to almost every habitation of 
man. I see the multitude everywhere eager for its ap- 
proach, and opening their houses, and their mouths, even, 
to receive the fiery fluid. I see the aged and the young, 
the decrepit and the healthy, the male and the female, 
the high and the low, the rich and the poor, plunging, 
with desperate strides, into the stream, and gorging them- 
selves therefrom. I see parents laving their children 
with it, and, ever and anon, pouring it down their necks ; 
and the delicate female, even, receiving it to her lips ; 
but the effects which I perceive inevitably to follow upon 
coming in contact with these streams, perplex and trouble 
me much." And so they go on, in alternate inquiry and 
reply, until, having surveyed the whole ground, the airy 
visitor pronounces the whole thing as " the work of the 
devil, — Satan's greatest masterpiece, — his metamor- 
phosis, by which brutes are made of the best material, — 
by means of which, more than by any other instrumental- 
ity, he keeps up his dark dominion over men ; " and he 
blesses God " that there are no railways, or steam-power 
by which these fatal streams can be conducted, or electro- 
magnetic telegraph, by which the art of making them 
can be conveyed to his own beautiful and happy world." 
But it needeth not the clear vision of a celestial being to 
discover the sad workings and fearful ravages of this 
mighty agent. It is too apparent to the view of ordi- 
nary mortals to be questioned at all. Even a cursory 
glance reveals all that the pure-eyed stranger saw. The 
deplorable effects upon individuals, and society at large, 
waken corresponding emotions in the hearts of all the 
good, and they mourn over the fact that their fellow- 
men will lend their support to means that are so dire in 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 169 

their consequences. But what are those consequences ? 
Hear what liquor — the foul fiend — hath been made to 
say : " Hear, all ye people of the world ! Hear ! I 
claim the right to load the bodies of men with a slow, 
lingering disease, so that after ten years of suffering they 
shall die some horrible and disgraceful death, at the rate 
of one* hundred thousand a year. I claim the right to 
injure the minds of men, so as to send twelve thousand 
raving maniacs to the lunatic asylum, and twelve thou- 
sand more to the asylum for idiots. I claim the right to 
so madden the people with ungovernable frenzy, as to 
make six hundred kill themselves, but, before they die, 
to kill, with heartless ferocity, four hundred victims, and 
make six hundred more perish with fierce and wild de- 
lirium. I claim the right, during these ten years these 
people are drinking themselves to death, to send one 
hundred thousand of them to the hospitals with disease, 
to make them squander their money and their property, 
and the money and property of their families, and waste 
their time and shorten their lives, amounting to three 
million years of life and industry. I claim the right, 
during the same ten years, to cause the people to commit 
a vast number of heinous crimes and offences, so as to 
keep twenty thousand in the state prisons of the land, 
and to cause two hundred thousand petty crimes and 
misdemeanors against the peace and good order of society, 
and make them harsh and cruel to their once loved wives 
and helpless babes. I claim the right to make five hun- 
dred thousand paupers and beggars, so as to crush out 
their dignity and self-respect, and blight their hopes for- 
ever. I claim the right to destroy with midnight flames 
a vast amount of property, by land and by sea. I claim 
the right to tax the honest and temperate people of the 
country, without their consent, to pay for all these woes 
and calamities, to the amount of two hundred million 



170 INTEMPERANCE, 

dollars a year. I claim the right to refuse to pay more 
than one twentieth of the taxes which the laws of the 
land have assessed as my share, and the right to force 
honest people to' pay them for me. I claim to be above 
the law and beyond the law. I claim the right to dwarf 
the intellect and corrupt the morals of the people, and 
corrupt the hearts of the lawgivers, and corrupt those 
whom the people elect to enforce the laws. And I not 
only claim these rights, but in the name of wickedness, 
my birthright, and depravity, my acquired knowledge, 
and passion, my strength, and covetousness, the grand 
aim of my life, I will exercise these rights, law or no 
law, for I have usurped the authority to rule and ruin 
the earth." 

Would that these extravagant claims were but a fic- 
tion of the imagination — the over-heated fancies of 
loud and enthusiastic declaimers ; but society appends 
ample testimony to their rigid enforcement. On 
every page of its history the sad truth is confirmed. 
Statistics declare, in startling tones, that it is all true ; 
and what is more, it is written everywhere, in legible 
characters, upon the broad surface of suffering humanity. 
Society is what homes and hearts make it. Its general 
tone and character are according to the condition of 
these. If the streams which issue from thence be limpid 
and clear, in corresponding degree will society mirror 
forth the same likeness. On the contrary, it shadows 
Jie darker picture, and reproduces all the tints in ever- 
widening effect. 

Society is cursed by the poverty which the love of 
strong drink engenders. Aside from the more strongly 
marked forms of this evil, there is another aspect, which 
involves a vast amount of suffering ; and that is found in 
the well-to-do families, who in every respect would be 
favorably situated but for harboring the demon of in- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 171 

temperance. The Hon. Edward Everett once said, 
" A wealthy drunkard may have self-control enough to 
manage his property, and honesty enough to keep out 
of jail. He may fill what is called a genteel position in 
society, and yet he may be the very tyrant of his house- 
hold; never pleased, never soothed, never gratified, when 
the utmost has been done by everybody to gratify him : 
often turbulent and outrageous, sometimes cruel ; the 
terror of those he is bound to protect, the shame of those 
who would love him if they could. A creature of this 
sort does not take refuge in a poorhouse, or drive his 
family to it ; but the coarsest and hardest crust broken 
within its walls is a dainty, compared with the luxuries 
of his cheerless table." 

There may be an honest dread of being ranked with the 
inmates of the poorhouse ; but the poverty outside these 
institutions that come by the way of intemperate habits 
is greater, in the amount of suffering which it occasions, 
than that which is seen in those. " To the victims of 
drunkenness, whom it has conducted to this sad refuge^ 
one bitter ingredient in the eup is spared. The sense of 
honest shame, and the struggle of a commendable pride, 
are at length over. They can sink no lower, and may 
possibly become reconciled to their hard lot." But in 
these other cases it is different. They conceal their 
woes, their self-denials, from the world as long as may 
be, and too often broken hearts end the sad scenes. 
There is the seen and the unseen — the public and the 
private. The want and the woe that begin in the bosom 
of the family flow out over the whole social area. How 
much richer would society be to-day but for the treasure 
that drink has robbed it of ! The money that is used by 
the accursed passion of the inebriate, and the tipplings 
of the moderate drinker, togetherwith the amount neces- 
sary to check the natural outgrowth of all this, would 



172 INTEMPERANCE, 

cover society with a richer mantle than it ever yet has 
known, if it could be used for its adornment. We have 
seen how the lovers of drink will spend the last cent of 
their earnings for the gratification of their ruling passion, 
regardless of the piteous cries and pleas of those nearest 
to them ; and of course such as these utterly ignore the 
claims of society upon them, and so the many suffer 
privation through them. Says a gentleman lecturer, 
" We were addressing a Band of Hope in Boston on one 
of the coldest evenings of last winter. During the 
progress of the meeting,, a drunkard entered the hall and 
took a seat near the door. He was a young man, about 
thirty-two years of age, and he listened with deep at- 
tention to the remarks. At the close of the exercises, 
when the congregation had passed out, so that he could 
approach the desk, he advanced and grasped the speaker's 
hand, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, and his 
whole frame shook with convulsive sobs, saying, in a 
sepulchral tone that was truly startling, ' I am a drun- 
kard beyond recovery.' Observing his high, intellectual 
forehead, that indicated marked native intelligence and 
manhood, we answered, ' You look as if you might be 
saved, and as if you were worth saving.' He replied only, 
in a tone that was still more affecting, ' I am a drunkard 
beyond recovery.' And to prove that his reformation 
was impossible, on account of the terrific power of his 
appetite, he flung open the ragged coat that was but- 
toned around him, disclosing that he had neither shirt nor 
vest. ' I sold my shirt for rum to-day,' said he. Then 
lifting up his right foot, to show that he was destitute of 
stockings, he added, ' I sold my stockings for rum to- 
day ; and this is the way I have obtained my rum,'- he 
continued, ' ever since last August, when I returned 
from the army. I beg a coat of one kind man, and then 
pawn it for rum ; then a vest, and then a shirt, go in 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 173 

the same way, their places being soon supplied by beg- 
ging other garments.' " 

And this is but a specimen item in that poverty-stricken 
list, which are worse than so many dead weights upon so- 
ciety. Nor is this material loss the only feature of the 
case. There is a moral indigence that is worse than even 
this. To have all that heart and intellect can give, in 
their unfettered, unclouded state, is to make society rich 
in itself. It is the mainspring in the machinery which 
turns out wealth ; and to be deprived of all this by an 
unnatural process is to reverse the whole order, and give 
poverty full license to desolate and waste at its will. 

The poverty of this higher realm is worse than all 
others, and the blight upon society induced by it is 
tenfold more to be dreaded than the withdrawal of that 
which pecuniary possessions involve. True, they are 
more or less blended, for the cultivation and develop- 
ment of the moral and intellectual resources which tend 
to the elevation and enrichment of society are due, in a 
good degree, to the pecuniary forces of application. The 
failure of both creates one vast system of pauperism. 

It is estimated that in the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain, one in twenty of the entire population are pau- 
pers, and that intemperance is the direct or indirect cause 
of nine tenths of the whole. Our own country furnishes 
facts of equal significance. The report of the secretary 
of state to the legislature of New York in 1863 showed 
the whole number of paupers to be two hundred and 
sixty-one thousand two hundred and fifty-two, or one 
in fifteen of all the inhabitants of the state ; and seven 
eighths of these were reduced to their beggarly condition 
through the influence of intoxicating drink. Similar re- 
ports from nearly all our states show corresponding cal- 
culations at the present time. . Two hundred thousand 
children, it is said, are annually sent to the poorhouse, 



174 INTEMPERANCE, 

and two millions of children in the United States are not 
in attendance upon any school, chiefly because of the 
wasting blight of this system. Their parents have been 
lodged with or before them, and society is compelled to 
bear the burden of their support, although it has ceased 
to care for them, only as gospel benevolence prompts to 
their rescue. 

Vice and crime, too, find their instigator in the same 
dreadful practice. Social self-interest enters its protest 
against the continuance of a system which is at war with 
every true interest of the state. It is for the interest of 
society that sobriety should prevail ; that there should, 
be no vice or crime, no pauperism, no lunacy, or avoida- 
ble disease ; that there shall be domestic comfort and 
general education ; that the rates and taxes, and the 
demands on private charity, should be reduced to the 
minimum consistent with the contingencies of life ; and 
against the whole and every part of this enlightened in- 
terest the liquor traffic wages incessant war. But for 
this, the so-called ." Social Evil" would never multiply 
itself so fearfully as it is now doing in every part of our 
land, prostituting all the nobility of woman's nature to 
the basest shrines on earth. From whence cometh all 
this? Associated, it may be, with those who degrade 
themselves with drink, they lose their moral sense, and 
become insensible to the charms of virtue. One who 
has observed these things says of them, " The social 
glass blunts their own moral perceptions, and throws 
them off their guard, and thus they become an easy prey to 
the wiles of the seducer. Thousands of them come from 
their sweet country households, in all their health and 
beauty, blooming as the heather upon their native hills, 
or the roses that adorn the walls of their cottage homes. 
Led astray through the terrible agency of strong drink, 
they flock to our large towns, and there commence their 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 175 

sad career. To drown the pangs of conscience, the 
bitterness of remorse, and the deep sense of shame, they 
fly to strong drink, and thus become confirmed in vice. 
In a very short time, a few months in some, a few years 
in others, their bloom and beauty fade, and they become 
either bloated and blaspheming monsters, with every 
womanly attribute eradicted, or poor, emaciated, and dis- 
eased outcasts, homeless and hopeless." No sadder sight 
can meet the gaze of man or angel than is seen in this 
part of the picture. 

Almost all the murders that are committed in the land 
are executed under the demoniac influence of rum, and 
hence the efforts on the part of so many criminals and 
their friends to rid themselves of the penalty of the law, 
because they knew not what they were doing, as if the 
putting themselves in that position did not merit the 
righteous condemnation of some stern law also. There 
are few who are so reckless and hard-hearted by nature 
as to nerve themselves to the deliberate performance of 
an act that would knowingly sever the thread of life, and 
send a soul out of the world, while they forever after 
were to be haunted by the conviction that they were to 
be confronted with a trial in the future with such a wit- 
ness against them. No ; take the cup of alcoholic mix- 
tures from the hands of men, and the three hundred 
murders that stain our annual records would be sub- 
stituted by an untarnished blank, or left to the recital of 
something else far less painful in its character. The 
cells of our prisons and jails echo to the moans of cap- 
tives who would never have been found there, had they 
been in the sane condition they might have been. An 
eminent judge of New York, who lived to be upwards of 
eighty years old, declared in a public assembly, that 
"the greater portion of the trials for murder, for as- 
saults and batteries, that were brought into court since 



176 INTEMPERANCE, 

his entrance on the practice of law, originated in drunk- 
enness." Another one also declared, in addressing a 
jury, " If it were not for this drinking, you and I would 
have nothing to do." 

In a document, published by the legislature of the 
above-named state, there is seen the following para- 
graph : — 

" There can be no doubt that, of all the proximate 
sources of crime, the use of intoxicating liquors is the 
most prolific and the most deadly. Of other causes it 
may be said that they slay their thoil&nds ; of this it may 
be acknowledged that it slays its tens of thousands." 

According to the computation of those interested in 
making the observations, there are four hundred who 
put an end to their own life every year, by reason of 
this same thing ; so many who terminate their earthly 
career, and rush unbidden into the presence of their 
Creator, with no account to render but that they were 
weary of the existence their own course had embittered. 
At best, intemperance is but the prime minister of 
death. To it is to be attributed a large amount of the 
yearly mortality. The pestilential diseases that sweep 
across the country at certain seasons are a thousand times 
worse for it. The system that is poisoned by drink 
cannot and does not resist disease. Of these it may be 
said, " They do not live out half their days." Multitudes 
of these drop out of the social ranks, and are buried out 
of sight, when otherwise their lives would be prolonged, 
and they might be a blessing to the world. Our lunatic 
asylums are crowded with those who rave in the dark- 
ness of everlasting night, because the burning fluid has 
quenched the light of reason, and thrown them upon 
society — helpless imbeciles. Were the punishment to 
cease with the first transgressor, there might be some 
consolation in that ; but the stare of thousands of idiotic 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 



children declares it to be visited upon the generate 
come. The avenues to the souls of such have 
wantonly closed, and they, too, make their silenl 
to benevolent humanity for protection, instruct^ 
support. 

Dr. Story, of Chicago, in writing upon " alcol 
its effects," estimates the annual cost of the idj 
drunkenness — counting the loss that comes thrj 
want of intelligence and industry — at forty-fr 
lions of dollars. However much may be done to I 
rate the condition of these, they must remain, if 
measure, an incubus upon society as long as theyj 

Then a home must be provided for the inebri* 
self, and the public must be taxed, or Charity mu) 
her offerings by thousands, that a restraint mighlj 
upon those who have no power to restrain thef 
and are therefore dangerous to the well-being of 
and so there is hardly an end to the capital 
called into requisition because of intemperance, 
it damages every good institution seriously, 
bath is not what it would be but for this. 1 
and quiet which should prevail upon this day are oftei 
broken in upon by the noisy revelries of those who are 
given to the cup, and have no regard for anything, human 
or divine. No law of earth or heaven intimidates them. 
Even isolated country places, where Nature invites to 
reflection, are not exempt from the shoutings and rude 
conduct of the drunken loafer ; and, worse than this, the 
evil has crept into the very bosom of the church, and 
some are sheltered in its embrace whose example does a 
ruinous work for those outside, to say nothing of the un- 
happy influence upon them, and those with whom they 
are so sacredly connected. Temperance is one of the 
cardinal virtues of the gospel, and if there is a place 
upon earth where it should shine with untarnished lustre, 
11 



INTEMPERANCE, 

^e it should be preserved in all its Heaven-appointed 
;y, that place is the church. That should be the 
iight on the hill, to allure and guide the steps of 
anderer on the wilds, and within its sacred en- 
there should be nothing to cast a shadow. The 
is planted for the elevation of society, and what- 
true and ennobling within it, is due largely to the 
gs of this mighty instrumentality ; but it has to 
ith a giant evil. 

English writer, in speaking of the religious ad- 
ent of his people, in connection with this subject, 
We stud our land with churches and chapels ; we 
thousands of clergymen to preach to the people, 
idreds of missionaries to visit them at their homes ; 
ids of Bibles and tracts are distributed to them 
asly every year, and thousands of Sunday schools 
blished for the religious education of the young ; 
withstanding all these appliances, licentiousness 
godliness abound in our midst, and the noblest 
ns of humanity receive some mysterious check, 
xnstead of finding expression in a pure and godlike 
xife, they are kept under, and vice and drunkenness are 
pursued. Now, how are we to account for this sad state 
of things ? It is because the ministers of morality and 
religion are opposed by the ministers of vice and immo- 
rality, and buildings dedicated to the worship of God are 
opposed, and vastly outnumbered, by temples set apart 
to the worship of Bacchus." 

There is no fitness or inclination to appreciate sacred 
things when reason and conscience are altogether per- 
verted from their legitimate use ; when everything be- 
fore the mind is only impure and unholy, and they have 
resigned themselves, soul and body, to the dominion of 
an evil spirit, to be controlled by it. Hence the fearful 
amount of profanity in society. If one has any reverence 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 179 

for the name of the Most High, he cannot walk through 
the streets of a city, or scarcely a lane in the country, 
without having his moral sensibilities shocked* beyond 
measure, because of the oaths and imprecations that 
come to his ears ; and he is constrained to say within 
himself, Verily intemperance is blighting our fair heri- 
tage. And who are these ? They are not always among 
the low. A large proportion of these are young men, 
" the bone and sinew of the republic, the hope of the 
church and the state, and many of them connected with 
the best families in the land. Many of these have been 
taken from the bar, the medical profession, the pulpit, 
from mercantile and mechanical walks, where they might 
have been eminently useful ; " and they have turned 
their backs upon all the interesting relations of life, and 
all the sacred connections of society, with a determined 
bent, as it seems, to defeat the end of their creation. To 
see how the wasting influence spreads, we have but to 
observe the testimony of those who have gone out to 
foreign lands, professedly to carry light to those who 
have it not, and see how their work is made tenfold 
harder, because men will manufacture and circulate 
everywhere the wretched poison. Says the -English au- 
thor already cited, in speaking of the counteracting 
influence that intemperance opposes at home, — 

" The drink system is no less obstructive to mission- 
ary operations abroad. Missionary societies are the 
glory of the age in which we live, and one of its most 
striking characteristics ; and we cannot also but greatly 
admire those noble, self-denying men, who, spurning 
fatigue and hardship, and fearless of danger, forsake 
home, country, and kindred, in order to carry into re- 
mote and barbarous climes the blessings of civilization 
and Christianity. But, alas ! here we find cause for sad 
reflection and tears. The ship which carries the mis- 



180 INTEMPERANCE, 

sionary to his field of toil and danger also, alas ! carries 
with it an agent that shall prove more deadly, destruc- 
tive, and debasing to the savage than even their sense- 
less idolatry. That agent is fire-water. Thus do we 
more than undo all that the missionary accomplishes. 
We carry to the heathen the gospel in the right hand, 
and the whiskey bottle in the left ; and to every convert 
made to the former, a thousand are made to the latter. 
When we mark how Europeans have contaminated the 
natives of the Pacific islands, of the American wilds, 
and even of India, with the abominable vices and loath- 
some diseases of Britain, we may surmise that, had we 
never touched their shores, but left them entirely to 
their ignorance and their idols, they would not have 
been in a worse condition than they are now. Indeed, 
how can we expect them to receive readily the gospel at 
our hands, when they know that day by day we are in- 
flicting upon them disease and misery ? " 

While we fully believe that Christianity is a power 
that is destined to triumph, and that it is slowly but 
surely working its way among the children of supersti- 
tion and sin, we cannot hide ourselves from the fact that 
it is not what it might be, were there no untoward ob- 
stacles in the way. A missionary of Upper Canada, at 
Owen Sound, says, — 

" Indians — men that I love and value as brethren — 
have told me, with low and melancholy voices, of the 
devastation of this thing. A friend, a few weeks ago, 
told me of an effort he once made to induce a chief of a 
tribe of the Mohawk nation to allow a friend of his, a 
missionary, to come and dwell among them. 

" ' What you preach ? Preach Christ f ' 

"'Yes.' " 

" ' Don't want Christ — no Christ ! ' 

"My friend persevered. At length the chief got 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 181 

warm, and, towering to his full height, with a volcanic 
fire in his eye, broke out, — 

" ' Once we were powerful ; we were a great nation ; 
our } r oung men were many ; our lodges were full of 
children ; our enemies feared us ; but Christ came, and 
brought the fire-water. Now we are very poor ; we are 
weak ; nobody fears us ; our lodges are empty ; our 
hunting-grounds are deserted ; our council-fires are gone 
out. We don't want Christ. Go ! '" 

From India, Persia, and the islands of the sea, it is all 
the same. They bear universal testimony to the cor- 
rupting power of the unhallowed stimulant. 

Rev. Mr. Ellis, of the Sandwich Islands, writes, — 

" Since the introduction of Christianity to these isl- 
ands by the missionaries, there is no means which the 
enemies of morals and religion have employed more ex- 
tensively and perseveringry, for the purpose of counter- 
acting the influence of Christian instruction and cor- 
rupting and degrading the people, than the importation 
of spirituous liquors ; and no means of evil have been 
employed with more injurious effects." 

In connection with this thought is coupled the asser- 
tion and the appeal, which should not be without its 
effect, — 

" Had the Christian church, in all its different denom- 
inations, waged war from the commencement ; had she, 
at the origin of the movement, made it a great religious 
question ; had she then put forth all her power, and 
used all her appliances, in this direction, — we should 
not now have been weeping over the wholesale destruc- 
tion and debasement of our people ; nor would that 
church herself have had to deplore her empty fanes 
and desolate altars, and the increasing indifference of 
the people to receive instruction at the hands of her ap- 
pointed ministers. But 'it is never too late to mend.' 



182 INTEMPERANCE, 

Let the church of Christ, in all her different depart- 
ments, take up this great question, and identify herself 
with it, nailing under the banner of the cross the banner 
of teetotalism, and, with both waving above her, she 
will march onward to certain victory oVer licentiousness, 
inebriety, and 8 the legions of Sin.' " 

No one can look at even this outline sketch, and not 
see how the social system is suffering from the deadly 
incubus of drink. No pestilence that has ever swept 
through the country is to be compared .to it. That is 
but temporary. The winds of heaven, the heats of 
summer, or the frosts of winter, may modify the pro- 
curing cause of these things ; but none of them touch 
those blighting agencies of which we speak. Its devas- 
tations are worse than those of war. Its contests may 
be long and bloody, and we may turn from the immense 
sacrifice of human life with horror ; but there comes a 
time when the sword is sheathed, and Peace proclaims a 
jubilee. But Jntemperance is always marshalling her 
ranks, and filling up her armies — always slaughtering 
her thousands, and keeping up the din and roar of her 
battling legions. Society is bleeding, groaning, suffer- 
ing, because of it. To stay this moral blight is the ques- 
tion of the day. No grander movement could claim the 
attention of men, and earth and heaven wait the result. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 183 



CHAPTER XII 

National Loss. 



n 



THEORY OF SOUND. — WHAT CONSTITUTES NATIONAL LIFE. — ''BANK 
FOR LOSINGS." — PRODUCTIVE LABOR OF THE NATION LESSENED BY 
A DRINKING HABIT. — MOTIVES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. — THE GRAIN- 
DESTROYING CURSE. — OBSTRUCTS TRADE AND COMMERCE. — IMPAIRS 
THE ARMY AND NAVY. — CURTAILS THE POWER OF LITERARY INSTI- 
TUTIONS. — AN IMAGINARY PICTURE. 

There is a theory among men that anything once 
started never ceases its action ; that sound, once wak- 
ened, goes on and on in endless vibration, as if it were 
a chain, whose ever-added links went on Jo infinity. If 
this be true in the natural world, something quite like 
unto it is true in the moral world. There are circles of 
influence that are ever widening, ever deepening, until 
they reach the farther shore of man's being and nature, 
and are lost in the larger ocean of aggregated existence, 
but still go on agitating and affecting things and condi- 
tions to their remotest bounds. The little thing that 
we saw nursed in the bosom of the family has become 
a threatening giant in our midst. We have followed it 
from the individual through family and social life, and 
now we come to the outer circle of visible results as 
the American people — the nation. 

But what is the nation ? 

It is " the union of many homes, the people of which 
possess the same general characteristics, and have many 
interests in common, the whole being united under one 



184 INTEMPERANCE, 

government. It has also its laws, its great national in- 
stitutions, its literature, its commercial relations with 
other lands, and a history of its own, pregnant with in- 
struction. A nation, as an individual, should have noble 
purposes to accomplish, and a destiny to fulfil. This 
includes the protection of the people, the development 
of their resources, and, through the union in council of 
their greatest intellects, the blessings of education, and 
of all the loftier forms of civilized life. A nation, in 
fact, ought to be a blending and union of all the noblest 
traits that adorn our species. There is an ideal of a 
perfect nation, as well as of a perfect individual, and 
the world is struggling to attain it. The revolutions 
and changes going on among the nations are so many 
steps in this direction, and all, for the most part, so 
many expressions of those longings for that perfection 
of society of which, ever and anon, we have inspiring 
glimpses. 

" Now, it is the prevailing opinion — an opinion based 
upon stern, grim facts, educed by careful inquiry, and 
confirmed by extensive observation — that intemperance 
is the great curse of this country, in comparison with 
which all other evils combined are as nothing ; so that, 
were this one vice eradicated, we should attain to a state 
of unprecedented prosperity and greatness. It is ac- 
knowledged, even by our statesmen, that intemperance 
is the incubus which oppresses the national life, and that 
to roll this away would be to set the nation free in a 
glorious path of progress." 

What hope can Ave have for the vigor and prosperity 
of the national life, if the streams which feed it have 
corrupt and deadly elements ? Every individual is a 
part of this great organism, and is responsible, to a cer- 
tain extent, for what it is. Down through these and 
the family, the social and state relations, there is coming 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 185 

that which will add to, or detract from, national glory 
and interest. It is in these several departments that the 
material is furnished that is to mould the character and 
destiny of the higher life ; and in proportion to the 
strength and efficiency manifested here will be the de- 
velopment and application of the national resources 
which are to contribute to its wealth. We have seen 
how extensively the drinking system prevails in all the 
lower grades v of life and action, and it requires no long- 
drawn conclusion to forecast the stamp of the higher. 
" The child is father to the man," said a would-be phi- 
losopher ; so the blending and inter-blending of these 
public relations write the character of the former upon 
the latter. The nation cannot, will not, be what it 
ought, and what it might be, if all that ministers to its 
growth is withheld, or feebly supported. 

In this connection, we are reminded of what Theodore 
Cuyler calls the " National Brandy Bank for Losings." 
It furnishes a key to the solution of many problems that 
are written with reference to our financial condition. It 
shows what becomes of the money that ought to go for 
the building up of the nation. Writing from the place 
where he resides, he says, — 

" On the chief thoroughfare of this city, I often pass 
a stately savings bank, built of freestone, and I see 
groups of working people going in to deposit their hard- 
earned money. Some are mechanics ; some are Irish 
domestics ; some are poor widows laying by a few dollars 
for their fatherless children. But on the same street the 
Tempter has opened more than one Bank for Losings. 
In some parts of the city there is one nearly on every 
corner. In almost every rural hamlet, too, there is a 
similar institution. New York contains six thousand of 
them. In each of these Banks for Losings is a counter, 
on which old men and young, and even some wretched 



186 INTEMPERANCE, 

women, lay down their deposits in either paper or coin. 
The only interest that is paid on the deposits is in red- 
ness of eyes, foulness of breath, and remorse of con- 
science. Every one who makes a deposit gains a loss. 
One man goes into the bank with a full pocket, and 
comes out empty. Another goes in with a good charac- 
ter, and comes out with the word drunk written on his 
bloated face. I have even seen a mechanic enter in a 
bran new coat, and coming away again as if the mice had 
been nibbling at his elbows. I have known a young 
clerk to leave his situation behind him in one of these 
Banks of Losings. Several prosperous tradesmen have 
lost all their business there. Church members have been 
known to reel out from these seductive haunts, trying 
to walk straight, but backsliding at every step. If the 
cashiers of these institutions were honest, they would 
post on their doors some such notice as this : — 

"Bank for Losings. 

" Open at all hours. Nothing taken in but good 
money. Nothing paid out but disgrace, and disease, 
and degradation, and death. An extra dividend of 
delirium tremens will be given to old depositors. A free 
pass to Perdition given to those who pay well at the 
counter. Also, tickets to Greenwood and other ceme- 
teries, entitling the holder to a Drunkard 1 s Grave ! All 
the children of depositors sent, without charge, to the 
orphan asylum, or the almshouse." 

It is because these banking institutions cost the na- 
tional government so much, that we are impoverished, 
and come short of those rightful accumulated gains 
which should make us richer and better. These " divi- 
dends " and "deposits" are all in the wrong way — 
misnomers all. The destructive and obstructive influ- 
ences occasioned thereby are almost beyond conception. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 187 

A whole nation is sometimes afflicted with famine, and 
this dispensation of Providence excites the sympathies of, 
people, and stirs their benevolence in a most wonderful 
manner ; but this, at its worst, can only touch the body, 
while this other ruins the soul, and is therefore more to 
be dreaded than any mere physical want, however great 
that may be. To think that men are voluntarily at 
work diminishing the strength of the national life, and 
dwarfing its very existence, is a most serious considera- 
tion. Let us look at some of the carefully prepared 
statistics that show how this is being done. 

In the first place, it diminishes the productive labor 
of the nation. It is well known that those addicted to 
intemperance are not fitted for the discharge of their 
ordinary duties in any direction. Large numbers of 
them are given to perpetual idleness, never accomplishing 
anything. They are the most abject kind of hangers- 
on — leeches that draw out the life-blood of the nation 
continually. It is estimated that one seventh of all the 
people in the whole republic are actually within the 
ranks of the intemperate ; that there are three hundred 
and thirty thousand men who are directly engaged in 
making and vending the destructive beverage, whose 
industry is thrown into the same channel, and who 
furnish this paradox to the world — the more industri- 
ous they are, the less remuneration does the nation re- 
ceive at their hands. Calling the whole thing a waste, 
as we must, we see how great a proportion of industry 
is perverted from the nation's use, and made to subserve 
only its detriment. Add to this the capital invested in 
buildings, and the loss to industry from drunkards, crim- 
inals, and paupers ; and the expense of police, of courts 
of justice, of prisons and poorhouses ; and the wholesale 
and all unlicensed dealers, numbering over twenty-one 
thousand, — and we have the loss of the labor of five hun- 



188 INTEMPERANCE, 

hundred thousand persons, which, at five hundred dol- 
lars a year, as an average, amounts to two hundred and 
fifty millions of dollars. This does not include the loss 
of time of the seven hundred and fifty thousand drunk- 
ards. Half the time of these, at the rate of two dollars 
a day, amounts to two hundred and twenty-five millions 
a year. Nor does this take into account the imbecile 
thousands who are supported at the public expense 
besides. 

The quantity of liquors made annually now, in their 
various departments, is estimated to be about five hun- 
dred and forty million gallons, — "enough," it is said, 
" to float a respectable navy." Many of those who are en- 
gaged in this traffic, directly or indirectly, become rich ; 
and is not the nation benefited through them ? How 
is it ? Dr. Story asserts that " it takes about ten 
years, on an average, to make a fortune in the liquor 
business ; and if they are so destructive to human health 
as to destroy, annually, one hundred thousand lives, as 
has been demonstrated, and since those who fall victims 
to drunkenness die twenty years before their time, it 
follows that every time one hundred thousand fortunes 
are made, twenty million years of human life are wasted, 
which is equal to sacrificing two hundred years of human 
life and industry, in order that one man shall amass a 
fortune. 

Only one hundred thousand men make fortunes out 
of the business, while thirty-one million nine hundred 
thousand lose by the traffic, as they have to pay more 
for the necessaries and comforts of life than they would 
if it were suppressed. Thus we see that three hundred 
and twenty men lose, in order that one man may make. 
Is that fair ? Is that economy ? But supposing all who 
engaged in the liquor traffic, directly and indirectly, made 
more money than they could in any other way, to the full 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 189 

number of one million men, while all the rest of the 
people were losers, — is that fair ? Is it right to tax thirty- 
one people in order to enrich one person, and that one no 
better than the rest ? Would it be fair to tax four per- 
sons to enrich us ? What has become of the good old 
democratic maxim, ' the greatest good of the greatest 
number?' " 

The total result he sums up as follows: "Suppose 
that a day's labor is worth one dollar and board, and that 
there are three hundred working days in a year ; then 
the one million people engaged in the liquor business 
would be worth three hundred million dollars a year. 
And the two million years of life and health (and there- 
fore industry) that are annually destroyed would be 
worth six hundred million dollars, or a total of nine 
hundred million dollars. So that the whole thing is at 
variance with the first principles of political economy. 
It detracts so much from the truest and best interests 
of the nation. A gentleman of Massachusetts, in speak- 
ing upon this point, says, * The capitals, materials, and 
labor, converted into ardent spirit, becomes a total loss 
to the world, and the community is taxed to make up the 
loss. Though the producer obtains his exchange, the 
manufacturer his reward, and the retailer his profit, the 
consumer loses the whole. Place the mind on this point, 
with all the intenseness of minute discovery, and show 
me the benefit which the consumer has derived from his 
purchase. If some benefit is not and cannot be derived, 
then it must be a total loss, involving all the capital, 
labor, and profit which the purchase costs. It is loss to 
the world, and doubly so to the consumer ; for with this 
loss his physical and mental powers are impaired — the 
very capital he had invested for future use. Had the 
devouring element consumed the purchase, and spared the 
purchaser, his loss would have been comparatively small. 



190 INTEMPERANCE, 

When labor and the resources of the country are applied 
in advancing the great objects for which man was cre- 
ated, and civil and political . communities formed, and 
mature, and elevate, and purify the mind of man, and 
perfect all his powers, they become beneficial instruments 
for the public good. The more deeply this principle be- 
comes fixed in the minds of men, the greater will be the 
demand upon these investments for carrying on the great 
purposes of improving the world, till man arrives at the 
highest elevation of which he is susceptible, in his pres- 
ent state of existence. The argument for the manufac- 
ture and sale of ardent spirits, derived from the fact that 
these employments afford occupation for multitudes, 
when viewed in its bearings on political economy, are 
unsound. What one gains another loses. Even if the 
government derive a revenue from the manufacture or 
sale, it changes not the case ; the consumer loses the 
whole. The government can never be benefited by a 
traffic the result of which is a total loss to every one of 
the entire amount of the article which is the object of 
the traffic.' " 

Some idea of the extent of the business is to be gained 
from the fact, that during the last fiscal year the amount 
of tax collected by the United States government on 
liquors was over fifty-two million dollars. Is the nation 
so much the richer ? Poverty rises in the background, and 
utters an emphatic No ! What a bartering of the more 
precious things are involved ! What a story of mental* 
and moral, and pecuniary waste is back of it all ! 

Think, too, how the fruits and grains of the earth, 
that were meant for the actual sustenance and comfort 
of man, are appropriated. Englishmen complain bitterly 
of this. There was a time in the history of Ireland 
when the rage for drink was such, " that the inhabitants 
of that country converted their grain into spirit to such 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 191 

an extent as not to leave themselves sufficient for food 
to sustain life. Famine and privation were the result ; 
and to prevent a recurrence of this state of things, the 
legislature passed an act to check the practice of free 
distillation. When famine again desolated that ill-fated 
land, in 1847 and 1848, and the greatest distress and pri- 
vation were experienced by Jbhe poor, it was distinctly 
proved that there was an ample supply of grain to meet 
the necessities of the people ; but, instead of being 
brought into the market to be disposed of for food, it was 
locked up in the granaries of breweries and distilleries, 
to be wantonly destroyed in the manufacture of intoxi- 
cating liquor. As a terrible result, half a million of 
people perished from starvation." If it be not true in 
its extreme renderings, as applied to our own country, 
it is, nevertheless, an almost incredible appropriation. 
Without staggering the mind with overwhelming to- 
talities, take a single instance of a single branch, and 
that beer. There are three thousand breweries in the 
United States, that consume annually twenty-three mil- 
lion bushels of barley. Of course, this is multiplied, again 
and again, in other departments, so that a vast amount of 
the productions of the earth goes to swell the tide of human 
misery, instead of allowing it to accomplish its original 
design. That which should minister to the process of 
nutrition, in a natural way, is converted into that which 
poisons and blasts ; reducing where it should strengthen, 
and tearing down where it should build up. All the 
great industries of the nation are related to each other, 
and are more or less dependent on one another. Trade 
and commerce are not what they would be were they 
unobstructed by this gigantic power. In various ways 
it is brought to bear upon the multiform schemes which 
tend to establish the laws that have it for their end to 
place these things upon a permanent and reliable basis. 



192 INTEMPERANCE, 

A sober judgment, a cool and calm comprehension, and 
a broad and clear understanding, are all requisite to 
appreciate and carry out these things successfully. We 
have said it too many times to need the repetition of the 
truth here, that all this is lost in the condition of the 
intemperate man. 

There are, then, the loss and disaster occasioned by the 
direct mismanagement and inefficiency of those upon 
whom devolves the care of that upon which the issue de- 
pends. How many valuable cargoes have been lost, and 
how many vessels with their entire crews have been buried 
beneath the waves of the ocean, simply because intem- 
perance was at the helm ! The army and navy have 
been sadly demoralized by reason of it. It was declared 
the greatest possible hinderance to the discipline of sol- 
diers, by all the most thoughtful and sober-minded 
generals. Concerted plans of action, which demanded 
prompt and decisive measures, were often overthrown 
and rendered useless for this one reason, and when soci- 
ety looked for the return of her disbanded soldiery 
its solicitude spent itself mainly upon this one feature. 
" Drunkenness is the vice of the army," it hath been 
said. Away from all the gentle and restraining influ- 
ences of home, and its watchful guardians, the tendency 
is to rioting and excess ; and the natural indulgence of 
those feelings seems to be in one direction — that of drink 
and its consequent vices ; and in this way, what is pro- 
vided for the salvation of the country goes to further its 
ruin. Our educational institutions are the pride and 
glory of our land, and yet they do not occupy that posi- 
tion, or exert so wide and all-controlling an • influence as 
they might, if their standard of temperance was as high 
as it ought to be. We look upon them as strong and 
mighty bulwarks, as moral safeguards, as so many step- 
ping-stones up the ladder of national greatness ; and so 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 193 

they are, in a very good degree ; but who does not know 
that the perfection of all these would be greatly en- 
hanced by certain conditions — conditions which involve 
the uplifting and training of a mass of now degraded 
minds ? We know of many who have fallen out of these 
institutions by the way, and the consequences of their 
fall cannot be measured except by those ever-widening 
circles that we have seen to touch a remote boundary. 

Bribery and corruption have not escaped the highest 
political action of states, and there are many stories of 
disgrace and defeat that are whispered about in private 
circles, or, perhaps, are chronicled among the historical 
literature of the day, that show with painful certainty 
the fact, that there is no stream left uncontaminated 
by this all-pervading taint. 

But where are the words to follow up and trace out 
all these windings ? We are proud of our nation. The 
heathen Romans never despaired of a man who was 
proud of their republic. We hesitate not to acknowledge 
a pride in ours, and with that emotion there is mingled 
a profound regard for its honor ; but who or what 
threaten to assail it with fiercer hate and more dis- 
astrous consequences than this same demon of intem- 
perance ? Facts are appalling, statistics overwhelming. 

" President Everett computes that the use of alcoholic 
beverages has cost the United States, directly, in ten 
years twelve hundred million dollars ; has burned, or 
utterly destroyed, five million dollars more of property ; 
has destroyed three hundred thousand lives; sent 
one hundred and fifty thousand to our prisons, and 
one hundred thousand children to the poorhouses ; 
caused fifteen hundred murders, two thousand suicides, 
and has bequeathed to the country one milhon of orphan 
children. . . . It is plain enough that this tremendous 
drain upon the nation's increase and substance, and the 
12 



194 INTEMPERANCE, 

deepening degradation, year by year, of our industrial 
strength, cannot long continue without fatally under- 
mining prosperity, the public credit, and political free- 
dom. Measurably, the government is already passing 
under the control of two hundred thousand liquor 
dealers' besotted customers. Numbers of chief cities have 
been, and still are, held in what is little better than a 
state of siege by the rum power. State and city elec- 
tions, not a few, are conspiracies against the republic, 
made possible by strong drink. Different departments 
of national and municipal authority have become foul 
with dishonor through intemperate and debauched offi- 
cials. Not unlike the ancient fabled Laocoon, our coun- 
try is in the constricting coils of the mighty serpent of 
the still, and we must bruise its head, or it will kill us 
and our children." 

Imagine, now, what it would be to have all this re- 
versed ; to have these coils loosened, these fetters broken, 
and all the links sundered that bind us to the huge 
monster ; to have all the vast enginery of individual, 
social, political, and national being move on with all the 
beauty and harmony that clear-headed reason could de- 
vise ; to have all the moral and intellectual machinery of 
the land work on without any great disturbing friction ; to 
have all the spiritual efforts for the renovation of the race 
pass on to full fruition by an unimpeded power ; in short, 
to have everything free from the slimy trail of the foe. 
Who can picture what the American nation would be 
under such an administration ? Is there no remedy ? 
Are there no glimmerings of hope that this will ever be ? 
It cometh not but by a mighty work ; and whoso shall 
aid in perpetuating it will do something in ushering in 
the good time that all the good arc hoping for. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 195 



CHAPTER XIII. 

What is the Remedy? 

NO " HAPPY VALLEY" BUT IN FANCY. — MORAL SUASION. — SIGNING 
THE PLEDGE. — SELF-RESPECT NEVER REGAINED. — GOUGH'S CON- 
FESSION. — TOTAL ABSTINENCE THE ONLY TRUE REMEDY. — THE 
COURT CLERK. — TESTIMONY OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN. — ANEC- 
DOTE OF FARRAGUT. — BIBLE PRINCIPLES. HOMES FOR INEBRI- 
ATES. — VIEWS OF MR. POMEROY. — FROM THE PATIENT'S STAND- 
POINT. — CHAPLAIN'S STATEMENT. — LAW INTERFERENCE. 

It is pleasant to stand and gaze at a beautiful picture, 
when every figure and every scene upon the canvas 
make silent but eloquent appeal to the senses, in a 
way that ministers to the gratification of the whole being. 
It might be pleasing to our exacting desires for happi- 
ness, if we could always dwell amid beautiful sights, and 
be regaled with delightful sounds ; but earth, in its best 
conditions now, affords no such "happy valley" to in- 
vite the children of- men to a calm repose. Such places 
exist ouly in the regions of fancy, and there is no basis 
for any such hopeful anticipation, except as the mind 
soars aloft into the realm of the spiritual, an?l finds in 
the everlasting beyond a fulfilment of the promise that 
this ideal beauty and perfection are to be realized .at some 
time and somewhere, in certain cases and under certain 
conditions. This side the immortal boundary the pictures 
of life are darkly shaded. In the shifting kaleidoscope 
with which we have to do, they are ever assuming new 
forms, and awakening new sensations. We would gladly 
escape from the view of many of them ; but as we cannot, 



196 INTEMPERANCE, 

the question is, How shall we touch and retouch, so as 
to make the colors brighter and the forms fairer ? 

The picture of human life upon which we have been 
dwelling is sad and forbidding indeed. To see the cre- 
ations of the divine Artist disfigured and discolored in 
such reckless manner as -scarcely to leave a trace of the 
original beauty and workmanship, is a sorry sight indeed. 
The piteous, fallen spectacles of humanity that have 
passed before us in one long, melancholy procession, 
have served to confirm the idea that total depravity is 
written upon the hearts and ways of men. It almost in- 
spires a feeling akin to that which impelled the monks 
and hermits of old to retire into the caves and deserts, 
that in these mountain fastnesses and retired places they 
might escape the contamination of the world, and a 
knowledge of what passed within it. This, however, 
betrays weakness, inasmuch as it implies a want of moral 
inertia, and an indisposition to grapple with the tempta- 
tions of life, and be one of the laboring host to aid in 
the reformation of those who have gone astray. This 
work, in connection with the subject before us, is vast, 
urgent, and complicated. What can be done to save 
this host of drinking men? What arguments can be 
brought to bear upon them ? 

It is hardly to be supposed that the inventive genius 
of man can bring forward anything new, though he be 
urged by the strongest and highest motives of philan- 
thropy. The hope lies in the persistent use of the same 
means and the same incentives that good people have 
been using for a long time. Some think that moral 
suasion ought to be sufficient to reclaim the drunkard ; 
that if he is reasoned with rightly on the duty of abstain- 
ing from his self-indulgent habits, and warned of the 
inevitable consequences that will result therefrom, it 
will do as much good as anything. But, at the begin- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 197 

ning, does he not know all this just as well as the one 
who tells him? Is he not perfectly sensible that it 
works all that his friend tells him, and more too ? Said 
the author of the " Temperance Tales," " I believe moral 
suasion alone, as a means of ridding the world of drunk- 
enness, would prove about as effectual as a bulrush for 
the stoppage of the Bosphorus. In spite of the expecta- 
tions of the most sanguine suasionists, unless opposed by 
some more powerful barriers, this river of rum and ruin 
will flow on to eternity. 

" The moral suasionist of modern times," he continues, 
" though not always inspired, presumes to accomplish, 
without the aid of law, more than was achieved, in the 
days of the apostles, by the power of the law and gospel 
combined." The most eloquent appeals that could pos- 
sibly be made to bear upon one have been applied to 
individuals without any effect whatever. If there were 
any power in words, the pathetic, soul-melting, con- 
science-softening entreaties that have come from loving 
lips would have saved many a poor fellow from the curse 
of the drunkard. No ! it is not in words to save one 
that has yielded himself to the power of this slavish 
habit. Some regard the " Pledge " as a certain means 
of reformation, and imagine that if you can once induce 
a man to put his name upon paper, he is on a firm plat- 
form ever after. At a certain stage, and with certain 
characters, there is hope that they will feel the force of 
the obligation, and honor the contract they have bound 
themselves to fulfil. While we give the " Temperance 
Pledge " honorable mention, and yield to its claims as a 
reformatory power in many instances, we yet have com- 
paratively small faith that it will accomplish much for 
the salvation of the advanced drinker. The utter de- 
fiance of all law and order against all their convictions 
in these cases, the ignoring of all the most sacred pledges 



198 INTEMPERANCE, 

of love and affection in all their other relations, show 
what effect it is likely to have. Such a one might sign 
the pledge in a sober moment, when the pressure of per- 
suasion is upon him ; but these momentary resolves are 
swept away at the first breath of temptation, or the first 
sight of a boon companion. Does not a man give the 
most solemn pledge of his life, when he leads the being 
of his choice to the sacred altar, and declares that he 
will cherish and protect her as long as he lives, in all 
the days of good and evil that may come to them ; and 
yet, what power hath this pledge when the demon of 
drink hath taken possession of him ? If he will not re- 
gard this, what reason that he will honor that, when all 
his feelings, affections, and sensibilities are blunted and 
deadened, if not destroyed ? There are some happy 
exceptions, it is true. It has been the first stepping- 
stone to honor and integrity in a good many instances, 
and therefore we gladty place it among those agencies 
that are to help on the blessed reform. 

A few years ago, when the temperance reformation 
assumed a popular form, and so many reformed drunkards 
took the stand to plead the cause, the pledge had a promi- 
nent place. When John Hawkins was making his first 
speech, and telling the story of his degradation and resto- 
ration, a man from the gallery cried out in a tremulous 
voice, " Can I be saved, too ? " 4 Yes ! " said the speaker, 
" come down and sign the pledge ; ,s and amid the plau- 
dits of the assembled multitude, he went and enrolled 
his name with those who promised to break away from 
an enticing and ruinous habit. Others, stimulated by 
example, followed on, and many, it is believed, were true 
to their engagement ; but the best of these reformed 
ones never feel safe. Gough knew all the different 
phases of drunkenness and reformation ; but hear what 
he said years after he had signed the pledge. It was 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 199 

a declaration during one of his lectures. " I am now 
fifty-three years old ; and as I look back upon the past, 
as I mingle with the wise, the good, the pure, and the 
true, as I shake hands with such men as have grasped 
my hands to-night, I feel intense disgust and abhorrence 
of the days which that man spoke of as being happy. I 
would give my right hand to-night if I could forget 
them ; if I could tear out from my memory the remem- 
brance of the dark, black, damning days of degradation. 
But some say, 'You have recovered.' No ! we can never 
recover from the effects of such a life. What a man 
sows, that shall he reap. Little things show whether 
such men recover or not. One little thing I may say, 
personally, if you please. I have tried to bring up some 
children, not my own — and two of them are on the 
platform to-night. One of the hinderances to my speech 
is, that they are there, and hear what I say. Last sum- 
mer I heard one of those girls say to my wife, ' Aunt 
Mary, is it not strange that uncle John should have got 
drunk ? ' I felt ashamed of myself ; and is that not 
some penalty for a man to pay all the days of his life ? 
I do feel ashamed ; I feel as if I could hide myself in the 
earth ; I felt to-night, when I took hold of hands that 
had never been stained with the intoxicating cup, as if 
I could lie down and let them set their feet upon me. 
There is not a man so well known to the public so 
utterly lonesome and isolated as I am. Did you ever 
hear of my ever being at a party ? Never. I have not 
attended two for twenty-five years. Did you ever hear 
of my ever calling upon great men? No! and when I 
invite them, I do it with so much timidity that I do not 
much expect them to accept the invitation. I have 
asked some of the gentlemen here to-night to come and 
see me, but I do not believe they ever will. If a man 
invites me to a dinner party, I find an excuse. I never 



200 INTEMPEEANCE, 

go to see people, because I stained the pages of my life's 
book. Though I may turn over ten thousand stainless 
pages, the stains on the other pages will remain.' ' 

So true is it that the sad effects of intemperance can 
never be fully wiped out. The most perfect and reliable 
cures have yet an element of uncertainty about them. 
We have become more and more convinced, with the 
turning of every leaf in this tragic history, that there is 
no safety, and no remedy, but in one thing, and that is 
total abstinence. If young men would take this as their 
motto, when they go out into the world, write it upon 
every ringer of their hands, and live up to it in all their 
ways, it would do more to inaugurate a glorious refor- 
mation than all the brilliant theories of the moralizer, 
backed up by the most remarkable gifts of persuasion. 
If they would never begin to taste, and sip, and dally 
with the accursed thing, they would be all right, and 
never need to be hedged about with the thousand de- 
vices of temperance nurseries, that seek to keep them 
within proper bounds. We have yet to confront the 
manufacturer on his own ground ; but while the thing 
exists, and is likely to, while it is made and sold every- 
where, and so many are tempted by it, we shall have to 
dwell upon ways and means to check and avoid its in- 
fluence as far as possible. Whatever other methods may 
be presented, however varied may be the advantages 
of any other system, there is but one rule of universal 
application — but one thing that meets the necessities 
of every condition, from the moderate tippler to the 
confirmed inebriate ; and that is the last consideration 
we have named-— the entire abstinence from everything 
that intoxicates. There is nothing but the entire re- 
moval of it from all sjght and smell that will answer, in 
a majority of cases. We have seen how the habit grows 
upon one, Jiow the thirst becomes so insatiable in its 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 201 

cravings as to brook no control, and in what way it 
bears the victim downward as by a swift and irresistible 
current. We believe there are thousands who are ad- 
dicted to the use of the cup, who would lift up their heads 
and rejoice could they know that another drop of the 
deadly stimulant would never again pass before them ; 
and yet they have not the moral courage to resist it. 

At one time, the prohibitory law was up for consider- 
ation in a certain court. The clerk was a man given to 
drinking, and all the time through the debate he sat in 
fearful suspense lest the restraints which he deemed 
necessary would not be imposed. On the morning of the 
decision he entreated one of th'e judges to spare the law. 
Said he," " Sir, you know I am addicted to drinking ; but 
you do not know — no living person can know — how 
I have struggled to break off this habit. Sometimes I 
have succeeded, and then these accursed liquor bars, 
like so many man-traps, have effected my fall. For this 
reason I have labored for the prohibitory law. Your 
decision is, with me, a matter of life and death." When 
the decision was handed him to record, he felt it to be 
like signing his own death-warrant. Hope failed him, 
despair seized him ; amid the horrors of delirium tremens, 
when four men could not hold him, he sank away ; and 
in less than four days was no more. Is there anything but 
abstinence that can save such as these ? and how shall 
that be realized, unless the thing is put altogether be- 
yond their reach, where there is no possibility of their lay- 
ing hands upon it ? It is urged that this is an extreme 
measure — and so it may be ; but extreme cases demand 
extreme measures, and nothing short will meet the emer- 
gency. No half-way work will do here. Is there hope 
of a drinking man, when he says he will leave off grad- 
ually — that he will take only a little as he needs it? 
Do not his " needs " extravagantly multiply in his own 



202 INTEMPERANCE, 

estimation, until it takes an almost incredible supply to 
meet them ? 

There are a great many weak natures that are alto- 
gether incapable of bringing themselves up to any very 
strong powers of resistance ; neither can they be brought 
so as to be kept up by any external influence, while with- 
in range of the peculiar temptation. They are good- 
hearted and generous, and in all respects would be a 
desirable acquisition to society but for this one thing. 
There is hope that such might be restored to their posi- 
tion and their privilege, if once abstinence was placed 
upon the throne, and they were made to feel its power. 
There are some among good people who seem to think 
this condition too rigid ; that it costs too much ; and that, 
perhaps, after all, a man is not any better off for so 
much severity. Not long since an English gentleman — 
member of Parliament — testified, before one hundred 
and fifty medical gentlemen at a public breakfast, that 
there was nothing like this total abstinence to promote 
his health and efficiency. " I myself," he says, " a long 
time ago, for the sake of influencing some men, who, 
I saw, were rapidly going down hill to destruction, de- 
termined to put myself in the position to give them un- 
suspected advice. I said, I will abstain for a month, and 
see how it answers with me ; and finding it did answer, I 
went on for another month, and then for another. At 
the expiration of fifteen years subsequently, I thought it 
my duty to testify that, during the whole of that period 
I had enjoyed the best health, good spirits, and a great 
capacity for work ; and now, seventeen years later, and 
after thirty-two years of abstinence from intoxicating 
drink, I confirm the same to you all. I testify before all 
this company, that scarcely any man can have had more 
uniform vigorous health than I have had ; and for which 
I am deeply thankful, during the whole of the period I 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 203 

have named ; and I have been a tolerably hard worker 
too ; and I verily believe that I have been able to do more 
than I should have been able to do, if I had not been a 
total abstainer." The folly of those who believe it a 
special preparation for a special work, is a thousand 
times demonstrated by actual trial. 

Secretary Seward used to tell the following story : — 

" Everybody admired Farragut's heroism in clinging 
to the topmast to direct a battle ; but there was another 
particular of that contest that no less forcibly illustrates 
his heroic character. ' Admiral,' said one of his officers, 
the night before the battle, ' won't you consent to give 
Jack a glass of grog in the morning ; not enough to make 
him drunk, but enough to make him fight cheerfully ? ' 
' Well,' replied the admiral, 4 1 have been to sea con- 
siderably, and have seen a battle or two, but I never 
found that I wanted rum to enable me to do my duty. 
I will order two cups of coffee to each man at two 
o'clock, and at eight o'clock I will pipe all hands to 
breakfast in Mobile Bay.' And he did give Jack the cof- 
fee ; and then he went up to the mast-head and did it." 

Some argue against total abstinence with the show of 
being wonderfully devoted to the interest of the country, 
and so declare that all this fanaticism of abstinence, if 
carried out, would impoverish the nation, by cutting off 
an immense revenue. 

We fancy this would be more than met by the wealth* 
that would pour in from a thousand other channels, as a 
consequence of the more intelligent and efficient system 
of labor that would prevail. Brain is by far the best 
propelling force of the country. It matters not what 
its hidden resources may be, if there be no discriminating 
power to develop and apply, and any one who has ob- 
served the deterioration of mental and physical energy 
under alcoholic sway knows full well that there is a 



204 INTEMPERANCE, 

vast expenditure in the wrong direction ; that there is 
an almost incalculable waste of the material that would 
otherwise enrich. We would that it might be put to the 
test ; that for a term of years the whole range of intox- 
icating drinks might be swept from the land, and all the 
department of industry be filled with men who could act 
out their own natural impulses and energies; and we 
would not fear for the results from this stand-point. 

Torn from every other support, there -are those who 
will flee to the Bible, and interpret it so as to favor their 
prejudices. To them it is of wonderful significance that 
Timothy was advised to take a " little wine." They jump 
to the conclusion at once that Paul was not in favor of 
the " total;'''' and so they take license for indefinite in- 
dulgence, and feel very comfortable under the conviction 
that they have a mighty apostle to uphold them. Now, 
it is the easiest thing in the world for the unbiassed 
mind to discover that the spirit and teachings of the 
sacred Scriptures are all in' harmony with this matter of 
abstinence. 

" In regard to the assumption," says one, " that what- 
ever is not expressly enjoined in the Bible is opposed to 
its spirit and aims, we must remember that it is not a 
book of details. It does not lay down special precepts 
to guide us in all those multitudinous circumstances 
under which mankind may be placed. Why, the world 
itself would not hold such a book, and to master it we 
should have to attain to the years of Methuselah. 
i, " The Bible, in the main, is a book of broad and grand 
principles, easily applied to the circumstances of life. 
These principles are but few in number, easy to under- 
stand and remember. And what the sincere Christian 
should inquire is this : Is the temperance enterprise in 
harmony with these principles, or opposed to them ? If 
the former, our duty is plain and unmistakable. If the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 205 

latter, our duty is equally plain and unmistakable. 
When the Parliament of Tahiti consulted the queen re- 
specting the admission of intoxicating drinks, she said, 
1 Let the principles contained in the New Testament be 
the foundation of all your proceedings ; ' and immedi- 
ately they enacted a law against trading with any vessel 
that brought ardent spirits. It was not so much any 
isolated text, as the principles of the book generally, that 
guided their determination. They saw that love to God 
and man is the grand principle of the book, and that 
this love enjoins us to do nothing which would prove the 
means, directly or indirectly, of making a brother stum- 
ble, offend, or become weak, or fall into sin." 

Well would it be if this Christian nation would emu- 
late the example of these sea-girt islanders. Whichever 
way we turn, we cannot hide ourselves from the con- 
viction that total abstinence is the only safety for man 
at the beginning, and the only cure for the drunkard. 
The public have recognized 'this latter fact in providing 
Homes for Inebriates, the special object of which is 
to remove them from all possibility of obtaining their 
wonted drink. They are regarded and treated as dis- 
eased persons, and probably there is no disease on earth 
that is so difficult to effect a radical cure as this. These 
institutions start with the position that alcohol is a 
poison ; that systems charged with it are desperately 
poisoned, and in order to be saved, must be subjected to 
a thoroughly renovating process ; and this is slow or more 
rapid according to the time the destructive elements 
have been at work. They also regard the inebriate as 
under the conditions of a certain kind of insanity, and 
therefore one part of their treatment lies in the diversion 
of mind from the one delusion ; and so the same enter- 
tainments and amusements are provided in the one case 
as the other. There are several institutions of this char- 



206 INTEMPERANCE, 

acter in various parts of the country; one at Chicago, 
111., one in Maryland, the " Washingtonian Home " of 
Boston, Mass., and one in Kings County, N. Y. ; but 
as the one at Binghamton, N. Y., is the oldest, we con- 
fine ourselves to that, as a specimen of the characteristic 
working of the whole. It is said of him who founded 
it, "If he had possessed scientific ability and rectitude 
of purpose equal to his energy and persistence, he would 
have been acknowledged one of the great benefactors of 
his race, to be ranked with Howard, and Wilberforce, 
and Clarkson." 

In order to have a clearer comprehension of the object, 
system, and results of these peculiar asylums, we quote 
from a pamphlet published under the direction of the 
superintendent at this place, by J. N. Pomeroy, Esq. 

" This asjdum was the first of its kind in the world. 
Others have since been established ; but still there is in 
the public mind a complete ignorance in respect to its 
real objects and methods, a most profound misunder- 
standing as to what it professes to do, what it can do, 
and how it does its work. Doubtless nearly every pa- 
tient who comes here shares in this ignorance. I have 
talked with several who pronounced the whole thing a 
failure and a delusion, because it does not accomplish 
what it never professed to perform, and what it would be 
impossible to perform without the help of Omnipotence. 
Many persons expect that the curative process is to 
change human nature ; is to eradicate appetites and pas- 
sions which were implanted in man by the Creator, and 
form a part of his very being ; or to so transform the 
body that it may in future escape the dire effects of in- 
dulgence in alcoholic stimulants. Beyond a question, 
most persons without the institution, and most patients 
at their arrival, have a vague and confused notion, either 
that all appetite and desire for stimulants will be utterly 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 207 

destroyed, or that their physical systems will, in some 
manner, be so fortified that the moderate nse of intoxi- 
cating drinks may thereafter be indulged in with impu- 
nity ; and these patients and their friends are doubtless 
often disappointed or disgusted because such wonderful 
results are not accomplished. At the very opposite pole 
of opinion, there is another class of individuals who are 
equally wrong, both in their premises and their conclu- 
sions. Very many persons, generally those who are pro- 
foundly ignorant of mental and physiological phenom- 
ena, deny that the word cure is at all appropriate to the 
inebriate. They assert that, as the alcoholic habit is 
purely voluntary, it must be abandoned solely by an act 
of the will, and that it may always be thus overcome, 
no matter how closely it may have bound its willing 
victim. 

" The temperance movement fails to accomplish the 
reclamation of very few confirmed drunkards, for the 
simple reason that it ignores all those radical changes, 
physical and mental, wrought by the alcoholic habit, 
and calls upon the drunkard, whose body is disorganized 
and whose will is weakened and almost destroyed, to 
achieve unassisted that which needs all the helps of the 
best medical science, and of the most complete sanitary 
discipline. As well might societies be formed for the 
suppression of insanity, which should content themselves 
with urging upon the insane to disregard and throw off 
their morbid delusions by the mere unaided efforts of 
their own will. 

" What is meant by an inebriate, and what by his cure ? 
Without now stopping to inquire' into the effects of al- 
cohol in all possible cases, — without now troubling our- 
selves with the vexed question whether it is at all times, 
under all circumstances, and with all individuals, injuri- 
ous, — it is enough to say that there are persons whose 



208 INTEMPEKANCE, 

original physical constitution and temperament are such 
that alcohol, once used, becomes to them a necessity ; 
the brain and nerves, by virtue of some primary ten- 
dency, welcome the intruding force, and require the 
repeated stimulant, until at last they demand it with a 
vehemence which admits of no denial. The alcoholic 
habit is thus fixed, and the whole system must be wound 
up each day by increased doses of the poison, before 
either the mind or the body can perform their usual 
functions. Such persons are inebriates, and are none 
the less so because the use of alcohol may never be 
pushed by them so far as to produce complete intoxi- 
cation. 

" If a person once discovers that alcohol, at stated and 
regular times, has become a necessity to him, — if the 
leaving off from the accustomed amount, although that 
may be small, requires a struggle, — he may be abso- 
lutely certain that the primary constitutional tendency 
towards complete inebriety or alcoholism exists in him, 
and that he is in the most imminent danger. If the 
habit has once been thus formed, — if the stimulant has 
thus become. a regular necessity, no matter how small 
may be the amount used, — it is as certain as death that 
that amount will be, and must be, steadily increased, 
until at last it obtains a complete mastery over body, 
mind, and soul. 

" I know that we have all heard accounts of some ex- 
traordinary persons, some aged uncles or grandfathers, 
or other veterans, who, during a long ]ife, took their 
stated number of glasses each day, never increasing or 
diminishing the amount consumed, and were none the 
worse. Such stories may be true, but they are opposed 
to all the deductions of medical science ; they are op- 
posed to an almost universal experience ; in fact, they 
are to be regarded only as those few and solitary excep- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 209 

tions which bring into a stronger and clearer relief the 
terrible uniformity of the rule. I repeat, if the alco- 
holic habit is once fixed upon a man, the quantity of the 
stimulant required by him will steadily, and often with 
amazing rapidity, increase. Those who have formed 
this habit — no matter in what stage of its development 
they may be — are inebriates. There are thousands and 
tens of thousands who accurately answer to this descrip- 
tion. They are not secluded from society; they are 
found in every profession and business ; they engage in 
all the activities of our national life. The end of all is 
not the same. Many fall mortal victims of the poison, 
and die destroyed by alcohol as directly and truly as a 
soldier does by the bullet. Others linger through a 
longer life, with health impaired, with families shamed, 
with friends alienated, with powers weakened, with op- 
portunities lost, until the end comes, and their career is 
acknowledged by all to have been a failure. 

"Now, what is the cure ? It is certainly not the total 
destruction of all appetite for stimulants, nor the eradica- 
tion of the original constitutional tendency which I have 
described, for either of these would be simply impossible 
to all except the Creator himself. Nor is it any such 
physical change as will enable a person to resist the 
morbid effects of the poison, and will permit the use of 
alcohol in future with impunity ; for such a re-organiza- 
tion of the body is clearly beyond the reach of medical 
science. There is no Medea's caldron from which the 
inebriate may emerge, and enjoy a perpetual youth of 
self-gratification. The cure consists solely in the de- 
struction of the habit by absolute cessation, and in pro- 
ducing once more such a condition of body and mind in 
the patient that complete abstinence from the stimulant 
may become possible to him in the future. The very 
fact that the habit has once been formed shows that ab- 
13 



210 INTEMPEBANCE, . 

stinence is necessary ; for it demonstrates the existence 
in the person of that original constitutional tendency, 
which no appliances can remove, and which, yielded to, 
becomes as fatal as the plague or the leprosy. We may 
concede that others can drink from time to time without 
danger of excess, and with no perceptible injury, be- 
cause, for some reason or other, their systems, their 
brains and nerves, do not fully respond to the effects of 
the poison. But the man in whom the fatal alcoholic 
tendency exists, and who has once yielded to it, and has 
become the slave of its terrible tyranny, cannot expect 
to be made any stronger to resist its destructive effects 
than he was at the very outset. If he can be placed 
back again into his primary condition, into that state of 
body and mind which existed before the first use of al- 
cohol, he must be content ; all the cure possible for him 
has been wrought." 

After thus speaking of the object of the Asylum and 
its theory of cure, he says, — 

"It must be confessed at once that the results do 
not come fully up to the lofty conception. We find, in 
fact, that, of all the persons who resort thither, some 
are not benefited in the least ; some receive a partial or 
temporary good ; while others still are permanently 
cured. How large a percentage of the whole number 
the latter class forms, it is of course impossible for me- 
to say ; but it is certainly very considerable — at least, 
fifty per cent." 

There are three classes who are found within these 
institutions — those who have keenly felt the sad effects 
of the wretched habit, and are really and earnestly de- 
sirous of being, in some way, freed from its terrible 
power ; then there are those who enter these folds to be 
exempt from the immediate physical consequences of 
excessive indulgence ; and, lastly, those who have been 



ITS 'ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 211 

placed there by their friends, and who have not sufficient 
desire to reform in themselves to make them willing to 
yield to the sanitary restraints. For this latter class, it 
is affirmed, but little can be done. In order to illustrate 
the power of the social element in the matter, we give 
an extract from the remarks of one who had himself 
graduated from this same, institution : — 

" Since intemperance is thus clearly a social sin, it 
seems to me that its cure is best sought by social means. 
It would be found impossible, I am convinced, to take 
each inebriate separately, and work his cure. The at- 
tempt, if made, would prove a failure. The patient 
would only brood over his sin and sufferings, grow mor- 
bidly conscious that the whole world despised him, fret 
and despond under restraint, and return to his evil hab- 
its, in order to seek relief from oppressive thoughts, as 
soon as the period of his probation or imprisonment was 
over. For this reason, the old methods of sending a 
young man on a voyage to China, of rusticating him in 
a retired farm-house, and other varied contrivances for 
freeing him from temptation by shutting him up with 
only his thoughts for companions, have proved to be 
failures. These plans all lacked the social element, and 
could not be successful without it. Man is so consti- 
tuted that he needs companionship in all that he does. 
It is one of the oldest axioms of revelation that ' it is 
not good for man to be alone.' As an upright and pure 
citizen, he needs the support of those who will work 
with him in things ' lovely and of good report.' Much 
more, as a wavering, weak inebriate, does he need the 
countenance and sustaining example of those who are 
endeavoring to accomplish for themselves the task that 
he has undertaken. To my mind, — and I speak from 
experience, and not as a theorist, — this is one of the 
strongest arguments in favor of the establishment an<2 



212 INTEMPERANCE, 

hearty support of asylums for the cure of inebriates. I 
hold society responsible for the fall of most of those who 
are drunkards, and therefore bound to do all it can for 
their restoration. Until lately, it has been content to 
tempt young men to the indulgence or creation of an 
appetite for intoxicating liquors. When it had suc- 
ceeded in arousing the thirst for liquor, it turned its 
back upon the maddened inebriate as an outcast ; throw- 
ing him into prison when his body became helpless, or 
burying him in the Potter's Field when the natural re- 
sult of ruin and death were accomplished. 

" Let us be thankful that we have reached a day when 
the people begin to see the error of their ways, and are 
learning to take part of the drunkard's sin on their own 
shoulders. This feeling of responsibility is sufficient to 
arouse and quicken the public mind in the matter of 
saving and reforming the inebriate. But when, in addi- 
tion, it becomes evident that this reformation has a 
social side, the best way in which the public can work 
for this end is made apparent. To be successful, the 
cure must be sought by means of asylums, where a num- 
ber of patients are gathered together. Take the subject 
in its practical bearings. After a long course of indul- 
gence in drink, a man finds that his will power is almost 
destroyed. He has made solemn promises, and broken 
them ; has signed pledges, and violated them before the 
ink was scarcely dry ; has tried change of location, and 
found the experiment unavailing. A friend advises him 
to go to an inebriate asylum. He hesitates, from natural 
shame of exhibiting himself in such a character, but at 
last consents. On his journey he fancies himself scorned 
and despised when he arrives at his destination, or given 
over to the companionship of the wrecks and dregs of 
humanity. But how is it in fact ? As he enters his 
new home, he finds himself greeted by intelligent, re- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 213 

fined, and robust gentlemen, gathered from all the walks 
of life. They are swift to make him realize that they all 
stand on the same footing, and that there is no one in 
the asylum who has the right to hold him in contempt. 
One after another details his experience as they become 
acquainted, and all tell him of what they are doing for 
themselves and one another. As soon as he is in a state 
to realize this fact, he is a new man. His moral sensi- 
bilities are awakened, and he begins to realize that there 
is hope for him in the future. What others are doing 
and have done he also can do for himself. Here are 
men, some of them the first in the land, who will never 
despise him, and he begins to believe that there may be 
others in the world whose hearts will be as kind. Hence- 
forward, for him, ' there is no such word a,sfail.' Brood- 
ing thoughts are exchanged for healthy companionship, 
and doubts and fears for high resolves. As the result 
of this social influence, the work of reformation grows 
easier every day. From one and another he hears the 
story of those who have gone forth from the institution, 
and taken their places again in the busy world. They 
fill high positions in the professions, and places of trust 
in the business circles, and are living proofs of what can 
be done for the inebriate. When his own will has be- 
come strong enough to be trusted, he goes out into the 
battle with his eye on those whose story he knows, and 
who know his story, assured of their support and respect 
in the struggle that is to follow. This source of strength 
will always be with him ; and it will grow and spread, 
until society at large will become eager to grasp the re- 
formed inebriate by the hand, and restore him at once to 
his forfeited place, as having earned it by right of a hard 
battle crowned with victory. 

" It will be seen that I am strongly in favor of insti- 
tutions w T hich have a large number of patients. The 



214 INTEMPERANCE, 

social effect is better. From a multitude of companions 
each person can choose those who are best suited to his 
habits and modes of thought. Besides, the presence of 
numbers increases self-confidence. It implies a practical 
belief in reformation, and a determination to shake off 
the bondage of vice. The presence of a dozen patients 
would appear merely experimental ; the presence of a 
hundred has the appearance of settled convictions. 
Again, I speak from experience, recalling the good 
effect of the companionship of ninety inebriates, repre- 
senting all sections and all classes, in my own case. 
They appealed at once to the social side of my nature, 
making me realize that there was yet a place that I 
might fill, and work for me to do. Their presence 
strengthened and upheld me in the dark hours of doubt 
that will come to all who are warring against an enemy 
within themselves. Without their help, the will would 
have to war alone against a foe whose wiles are legion." 

With regard to the time necessary, Samuel W. Bush, 
the chaplain of the asylum, says, — 

" It accords with my observation that the longer any 
one who is in such a condition as to be compelled to 
come here remains, the better it is for him. Six months, 
at least, are required to secure signal and permanent 
benefit. One year would, in many cases, be better. Of 
course there are many exceptional cases. After a life 
of wild and reckless dissipation, in which evil habits 
and modes of thought have become ingrained in his very 
nature, and with a constitution greatly impaired, it is 
not the work of a day to supersede all this by the use 
of means which will give health to the body, clearness 
and strength to the mind, and vigor to the moral and 
religious sensibilities", and the establishment of correct 
habits of thought and action. These being secured, the 
patient leaves the asylum, the grace of God accompany- 
ing him, a truly restored and renovated man. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 215 

' " The value and necessity of an institution like this is 
not doubtful. All are benefited, without an exception, 
while within its walls ; and more than half, it is be- 
lieved, on data on which reliance can be placed, are per- 
manently reformed. The most eminent of the medical 
faculty concur in the opinion that intemperance is a dis- 
ease. However this may be, it is certain that it has a 
vampire hold on the unfortunate victim, from which 
to release himself he finds his own efforts powerless, 
and which is surely and rapidly spreading destruction 
throughout his whole nature. He therefore needs the 
aid of a physician, skilled in the maladies of both body 
and mind ; a place — an asylum — where, ' free from 
temptation, and with ample time for reflection, in con- 
junction with his own efforts, he can allow the medical, 
hygienic, and moral treatment to work out its legitimate 
results." 

This institution is not altogether a place to which the 
rich may flee to hide themselves, — those who are able 
to pay for all they have, — but it is largely of charitable 
working. The report for a recent year stands thus : — 

20 per cent, are at the rate of $20.00 per week. 

20 " " " " 15.00 "" " 

30 " " " " 5.00 to 10.00 per week. 

30 " are free. 

100 

While in all this we see how difficult it is to overcome 
the fearful habit of intemperance, it is not yet quite 
impossible 

" That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

Considering, however, the extreme risk that men run in 
the matter, it were safer and wiser not to bring them- 



216 INTEMPERANCE, 

selves to this living death, where they are obliged to 
take these painful steps backward to regain a lost man- 
hood. But back of all this individual obligation there 
is something more to be done. These remedial measures 
may do a good work as far as they go, but there needs 
an axe at the root of the tree. These roots are spread 
far and wide, and they need somebody to wield the axe 
long and well to make it effectual. Just as long as the 
law will lend its giant forces towards upholding and sus- 
taining the spreading branches of this mighty thing, it 
will continue to curse the land. Multitudes will gather 
under and about it, and, lounging in the shadow thereof, 
they will idle their time away, waste their energies, and 
cripple the best interests of society and the nation, to 
say nothing of their own personal wreck and ruin. 

If there were anything else that was capable of 
doing so much for mankind as total abstinence can do, 
the whole land would be wild with determination to 
procure it at whatever cost. There is nothing that al- 
lures the individual more strongly with promises of 
health, wealth, honor, peace, and every kind of happi- 
ness than this — nothing that prepares him better to 
become an ornament and support to society, and a bless- 
ing to the world generally. Would that the flag of 
total abstinence was waving over all the land, and all 
the people were safe within its folds ! Surely that 
would be one kind of millennium. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 217 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Temperance Workers. 

GREAT PRINCIPLES IMMORTAL. — DR. BACON ON SLOW IDEAS. — THE 
FIRST PLEDGE. — THE EARLY AGITATION. — DR. JUSTIN EDWARDS. — 

THE FEARLESS PREACHER. — HON. THEODORE FRELINGHUTSEN. DR. 

JEWETT. — REV. THOMAS P. HUNT. — REV. JOHN PIERPONT. — JUDGE 
CROSBY. — " THE NOTT CONTROVERSY." — FATHER MATHEW. — FA- 
THER TAYLOR. — WASHINGTONIANS. — JOHN B. GOUGH. 

We have affirmed our belief in the idea, that great prin- 
ciples will eventually triumph ; that they will be sure to 
come out right in the end, although subject to a thousand 
untoward influences in the progression, and assailed by 
the malignant hates and envies of men. In this we are 
met by the taunting voices of many, saying, Where is the 
promise of this ? Is it better now than it was in earlier 
times when there was less said or thought about it ? On 
the contrary, is not intemperance stalking abroad more 
defiantly through all the land, raising its hydra head 
more threateningly than ever? In reply, we confess 
that its form is terrible, and its dominion from one end 
of the earth to the other ; that in all the high and low 
places of our country there is great disturbance by 
reason of it, and yet there is a great difference in the 
way it is regarded now from what it was in the earlier 
history of our people. Intoxicating drinks are not so 
universally tolerated now as the} 7 - once were. In thou- 
sands of places where they were once deemed essential, 
they are now ruled out as unworthy and un-Christian. 
It argues not against the work of reform that it has 



218 INTEMPERANCE, 

made no greater progress. Great reformations are al- 
ways slow. It is not a quick work to uproot the rank 
and noxious weeds from the fruitful soil of the -human 
heart. It is very much like trying to get rid of a crop of 
Canada thistles. There is no help in this latter case but 
to eject them, roots and all ; and it takes time to do it. 
Dr. Leonard Bacon once said, while speaking of the prog- 
ress of the temperance idea, " The most interesting aspect 
in which the temperance reformation presents itself to my 
mincl, is as an illustration of the slow, but sure and certain, 
progress of one idea — of a simple, but great and just 
idea. That idea, when it was first announced, was an- 
nounced in its legitimate connection with Christianity. 
It came from the bosom of the church of God ; it came 
from the head of Christianity. It was argued and proved 
with texts from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and 
the Epistles of the apostles. We wondered — those of 
us who composed it at that early period — wondered that 
there should be so much resistance to it, and we as- 
cribed it to the power of selfishness ; for we saw in 
every direction great interests, great commercial ambi- 
tion, and powerful political interests, united against the 
progress of this idea. And yet, I apprehend, we as- 
cribed too much of this resistance to the power of self- 
ishness and interest. We ought to have remembered, 
more distinctly, perhaps, that great ideas, simple and 
commanding as they are, make but too slow progress to 
dominion over the minds of nations and individuals. 
You may convince an individual of the truth of an idea 
in conversation with him alone ; but he does not stay 
convinced. The sympathy between his mind and that 
of the vast multitude is too strong, and it is with your 
argument as it fared with Cato when he read Plato on 
the immortality of the soul ; he was convinced, and 
believed ; but when he had shut the book, he could not 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 219 

remember the force of reasoning in the argument. It is 
therefore in this way, on this principle, that truth, sim- 
ple and commanding as it may be, makes but slow prog- 
ress towards dominion over communities and nations." 
If it be that it is slowly permeating society, that it is 
silently perfecting itself in the convictions of men, there 
is hope that the day of practical results is coming. There 
are a host of honorable worthies who have given them- 
selves to this work with untiring energy and zeal. They 
have lent the full force of their commanding talents to 
aid in the mighty enterprise, and many of them have 
gone up to receive the reward of their labors in a higher 
sphere. We have not space to give to each and all that 
consideration which their merits respectively demand ; 
but we propose to give sketches of some of the leading 
spirits of different periods, and the manner in which 
they addressed themselves to the existing evil. Heaven 
never moves the world to a great work but what it 
supplies agencies to meet the demand. When great 
occasions call for superior intellects, they are always 
forthcoming. They rise up, perchance, from some ob- 
scure corner, where they have been held in a course of 
unconscious training for their special work, and surprise 
all by their peculiar fitness. 

It is often found, in tracing things back to their 
sources, that great matters have originated in a small 
way, through acts that have borne no significance to 
their after consequences. It is like throwing the stone 
into the water, and the narrow circle grows wider and 
wider still, unto the end. One Micajah Pendleton, of 
Virginia, is said to have drawn up the first temperance 
pledge of which we have any knowledge. That was in 
the year 1800, and was designed in a special manner for 
his own household, and was on the total abstinence 
basis. As this came to be known, other families imi- 



220 INTEMPERANCE, 

tated his example, until it became quite an extensive 
home institution in the state. Eight years later, the 
first real temperance organization was effected at Mo- 
reau, Saratoga Co., N. Y., under the guardianship of 
Dr. B. J. Clark and Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong, and forty- 
seven male members signed the pledge. One article of 
their constitution provided that no member should drink 
" rum, gin, whiskey, wine, or any distilled spirits," and 
a fine of twenty-five cents was imposed upon every one 
who should be guilty of violating the pledge. There 
was no movement of general interest, however, until 
1811, when Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, came before the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, in ses- 
sion there at the time, and urged the necessity of inau- 
gurating some scheme that should have a tendency to 
awaken the public mind to the wide-spread and increas- 
ing ravages of intemperance. But these were only the 
faint streaks of dawn before the day. 

In 1825, the Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards, that mighty 
and fearless worker in every good cause, took his stand, 
in battle array, against the foe, and produced a strong 
impression on the public mind by his well-directed ef- 
forts. Possessing a remarkably clear and discriminating 
mind, having a strong and commanding utterance, there 
were few men of that day or this who could rivet the 
attention of a congregation, either in the pulpit or the 
more public convention, more strongly than he. He 
seemed to be raised up by Providence to act a special 
part at this particular stage of the great reform. His 
denunciatory language and powerful arguments appealed 
to the hearts and consciences of men, and they heard 
and trembled. At this period both ministers and people 
looked upon the infant reformation as something to be 
kept outside the church. -To have it cradled in her 
bosom was more than they could bear. " Talk temper- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 221 

ance as much as you please," they said, " in your tem- 
perance meetings ; but bring it not into the pulpit on 
the Sabbath." Faithfulness and boldness in this matter 
turned many a minister from his place of settlement; 
and, if it was nothing more, a single sermon might so 
offend some of the best families, so called, — some 
. wealthy brewer, distiller, or, perhaps, wholesale dealer, 
— that they would withdraw their patronage and friend- 
ship, and make it as uncomfortable as possible for the well- 
meaning brother. But once convinced of his duty, Dr. 
Edwards was not the man to hesitate or parley. He felt 
bound to come out and openly remonstrate against the 
prevalent delusion, and thus he spoke : " Shall the fires 
which make this poison, burn on the Sabbath? Shall 
Jehovah be insulted by the appearance in the sanctuary 
of men who use it, and yet the Sabbath not be occupied 
by light and love to abolish the use ? Shall it cause the 
word of the Lord, even from the pulpit, to fall as upon 
a rock, and yet the pulpit be dumb ? or speak only on 
week days, when those who traffic in it have so much to 
do in furnishing the poison, that they have no time, and 
less inclination, to hear ? If Satan can cause this to be 
believed, and those who manufacture, sell, and use the 
weapons of his warfare, and multiply the trophies of his 
victory, not hear of their sins on the Sabbath, when God 
speaks to the conscience ; or be instructed from the pul- 
pit, his mercy seat, by the tears and blood of a Saviour, 
to flee from coming damnation, — the adversary will keep 
his stronghold ; church members will garrison it, and 
provision it, and fight for him. From the communion 
table he will muster recruits, and find officers in those 
who distribute the elements to fight his battles, and 
people, with increasing numbers, his dark domains to 
the end of time. If we may not, in this warfare, on 
the Lord's day, when he himself goes forth to the battle, 



222 INTEMPEBANCE, 

and commands upon the field; if we may not use his 
weapons, forged in heaven, and from the high places of 
his erection pour them down, thick, heavy, and hot, 
upon the enemy, we may fight until we die, and he will 
esteem our iron as straw, and our brass as rotten wood ; 
our darts he will count as stubble, and laugh at the 
glittering of our spear." 

Another minister, of unrecorded name, was greatly 
distressed on the question of duty. There were those 
among the members of his church whose business it was 
to sell the vile stuff, and others who were using it in 
their families, and all seemed given over to the fell in- 
fluence of the soul-destroying curse. He knew it was 
most hazardous to allude to the evil on the Sabbath. 
He expected, if he did, some of his best people would 
leave the house ; but he said, " Sink or swim, live or die, 
I cannot go on so. I must do my duty, and leave the 
event with God." He did it, and boldly called the sell- 
ing of ardent spirit as a beverage a crime, and the using 
of intoxicating drink a sin against the body and against 
the soul. Men felt that they were in a house on fire, 
and there was no escape into the open air. Women felt 
there was no religion in it, and they would not hear 
such preaching. The next morning, some wholesale 
dealers and consumers, heavy tax-payers, met on the 
sidewalk, and said one to another, " We will bear this 
no longer ; let us drive him off." A dry wag, listening 
to their complaints and threats, said, " That's right, 
brothers ; " and, alluding to several noted for their infi- 
delity, profanity, and Sabbath-breaking, " Go and get 
those," he continued, " and get a vote to drive him out." 
They started back, for they were professors of religion, 
and good men. They saw where they were, and where 
their minister stood, and how he had done his duty. 
Some gave up their traffic, all were quiet, and never 
more had that man any difficulty in doing his duty. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 223 

Dr. Lyman Beecher thundered forth his anathemas, 
and made such language as the following ring in the 
ears of every one engaged in the traffic : — 

" Can we lawfully amass property by a course of trade 
which fills the land with beggars, and widows, and 
orphans, and crimes ; which peoples the graveyard with 
premature mortality, and the world of woe with the vic- 
tims of despair ? Could all the forms of evil produced 
in the land by intemperance come upon us in one horrid 
array, it would appall the nation, and put an end to the 
traffic in ardent spirits. If, in every dwelling built by 
blood, the stone from the wall should utter all the cries 
which the .bloody traffic extorts, and the beam out of 
the timber should echo them back, who would build 
such a house ? What if in every part of the dwelling, 
from tlie cellar upward, through all the halls and cham- 
bers, babblings and contentions, and voices and groans, 
and shrieks and wailings, were heard day and night ? 
What if the cold blood oozed out, and stood in drops 
upon the walls, and, by preternatural art, all the ghastly 
skulls and bones of the victims destroyed by intemper- 
ance should stand upon the walls, in horrid sculpture, 
within and without the building ? who would rear such 
a building ? What if, at eventide and at midnight, the 
airy forms -of intemperance were dimly seen haunting 
the distilleries and stores where they received their bane 

— following the track of the ship engaged in the com- 
merce — walking the waves — flitting athwart the deck 

— sitting upon the rigging, and sending up from the hold 
within, and from the waves without, groans and loud 
laments and wailings ! Who would attend such stores ? 
Who would labor in such distilleries ? Who would nav- 
igate such ships ? O ! were the sk}^ over our heads one 
great whispering gallery, bringing down about us all the 
lamentation and woe which intemperance creates, and 



224 INTEMPERANCE, 

the firm earth one sonorous medium of sound, bringing 
up around us from beneath, the waitings of the damned, 
whom the commerce in ardent spirits had sent thither, 
— these tremendous realities, assailing our sense, would 
invigorate our conscience, and give decision to our pur- 
pose of reformation. But these evils are as real as if 
the stone did cry out of the wall, and the beam answered 
it ; as real as if, day and night, waitings were heard in 
every part of the dwelling, and blood and skeletons were 
seen upon every wall ; as real as if the ghostly forms of 
departed victims flitted about the ship as she passed over 
the billows, and showed themselves nightly about stores 
and distilleries, and with unearthly voices screamed in 
our ears their loud lament. They are as real as if the 
sky over our heads collected and brought down about 
us all the notes of sorrow in the land ; and the firm earth 
should open a passage for the waitings of despair to come 
up from beneath." 

Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen was another man of 
resolute will and determined purpose, who gave his com- 
bined efforts to the matter of total abstinence, not allow- 
ing wine — as some were pleading for in his time, be- 
cause they felt they were called upon to cut off the " right 
hand" and the "right foot," also. "The great prin- 
ciple," said he, " contended for, is the moral expediency 
of this pure standard. Let it be granted that men may 
lawfully drink wine ; that in Palestine, where grapes 
hung upon the boughs in the greatest profusion, men 
did drink wine ; that our Saviour himself drank wine, 
and sanctioned it by his example ; yet how different are 
the circumstances in which we find ourselves at this day ! 
Then there was no such thing as ardent spirits, by which 
men were brutalized and destroyed, both body and soul ; 
and it might not have been necessary then to abstain 
from that which in our day we look upon as a tempta- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 225 

tion and a snare, leading men directly to intemperance. 
But now the case presents itself to us in this light. A 
great moral power, which may be exercised to promote 
the welfare of our fellow-men, is offered to us in this 
total abstinence principle. In a spirit of benignant feel- 
ing towards our race, we adopt it." 

Dr. Jewett was long a faithful and earnest advocate — 
a popular lecturer — and by his own personal efforts did 
much to promote the cause in various parts of the coun- 
try. In his story of " Forty Years' Fight with the Drink 
Demon," he relates the incidents and adventures of this 
long conflict, and also speaks of many of those who were 
associated with him in the great enterprise. Among these 
was Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, of Pennsylvania, of whom it 
is said, he gave the whole subject a more thoughtful and 
candid consideration than almost any other living man. 
Those who knew him recollect the deformed figure, and 
also remember the expression of his keen eye, the pe- 
culiar tones of his impressive voice, which lent a charm 
and power to whatever he said. A friend says of him, 
by the time he had related an incident, " all eyes were 
riveted upon that little crooked man, with the large 
mouth and the lightning eyes, and all ears were open 
to hear instruction from him." Such was the effect of 
the following, with which he commenced his narrative 
on a certain evening : — 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I last evening delivered 
a discourse at Washington Factory Village, in the town 
of Coventry. As I was quite at leisure during the 
afternoon preceding the lecture, I proposed to walk out 
for a little exercise. A friend suggested that I might 
do some service to the people of the village, perhaps, by 
calling on Mr. Capwell, the keeper of the hotel, and 
having a talk with him. He was represented to me as 
a very clever sort of a man, good-natured, not at all in- 
clined to be abusive, and it was thought my words might 
14 



226 INTEMPERANCE, 

be of service to him. I called upon him; introduced 
myself as the person who was to speak on temperance 
in the evening, and found him disposed to listen to me 
with patience and candor. I told him I had been in- 
formed that he was the possessor of considerable real 
estate in the village, and assured him that whatever 
should have the effect to lessen the intelligence of the 
people, and to lower the standard of public morals, as I 
was quite sure his traffic would do, though he might not 
intend it, would most certainly diminish the value of his 
real estate, as it would render the village a less desirable 
place of residence. And I suggested to him that, in the 
long run, he would lose more by this depreciation of 
property, than he would gain, directly, by his traffic. 
He was listening to me with evident interest, and I 
could not but hope I was making a favorable impression 
on his mind, when, all at once, a side door opened, and 
a little bit of a woman rushed into the room so swiftly 
that her cap-border was turned back on her head by the 
current of air she created, and in a very excited manner, 
and with a very shrill voice, she exclaimed, ( I do wish 
that people would mind their own business.' 

" Taken quite aback for the moment by this startling 
introduction and speech, I replied, 4 Well, madam, and so 
do I ! % I agree with you, exactly, madam. That is an 
excellent sentiment of yours. I approve of it everywhere 
and always. I am a temperance lecturer, madam, and 
you see now, that while I am persuading this gentleman, 
your husband, very likely, madam, to abandon the sale 
of liquors, which make men drunk, I was laboring right 
along in the line of my business. You see I agree with 
you entirely. That is an excellent sentiment of yours. 
One reason why I labor to persuade men to leave off 
drinking, is because the use of liquor does, notoriously, 
lead men to neglect their business. For instance, here | 
is a carpenter. He has a fine shop and good tools. He ! 
is himself a good workman, and has not only apprentices 
to aid him, but also skilled workmen. He ought to do a 
large business, but he does not. What is the trouble 
The public know that he is a free drinker, and that he 
has, frequently, in the midst of an important job, gone| 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 227 

off on a spree, and the work has stopped in consequence. 
Business men don't like to intrust to him important jobs 
on that account. Now, don't you see, if I could induce 
that clever carpenter to leave off his drinking, he would 
thereafter mind his own business. You see I agree with 
you exactly, madam.' Just here she turned upon her 
heel and rushed out of the room, not even stopping to 
bid me good afternoon. I felt aggrieved at it. I nat- 
urally like the ladies, and love to be in agreement with 
them always when I can. And when, as in this case, I 
take great pains to prove that I am in accord with them, 
I like to have the fact appreciated, and to be treated 
with courtesy." 

In 1838, at a state convention held in Boston, Mass., 
it was resolved that an effort should be made to secure, 
from the legislature of the state, at its next session, a 
law prohibiting the traffic, and Rev. John Pierpont was 
commissioned to present a petition to that honorable 
body, in which occurs this emphatic and eloquent para- 
graph : — 

"If I be willingly accessory to my brother's death, 
by a pistol or cord, the law holds me guilty; but guilt- 
less if I mix his death-drink in a cup. The halter is my 
reward if I bring him his death in a bowl of hemlock ; 
if in a glass of spirits, I am rewarded with his purse. 
Yet who would not rather die, who would not rather 
see his child die, by hemlock than rum ? The law raises 
me a gallows if I set fire to my neighbor's house, though 
not a soul perish in the flames. But I may throw a torch 
into his household — - 1 may lead his children through -a 
fire more consuming than Moloch's — I may make his 
whole family a burnt-offering upon the altar of Mammon, 
and the same law holds its shield between me and harm. 

"It has installed me in my office, and it comes in to 
protect alike the priest, 'the altar, and the God.' For 
the victims it has no sympathies. For them it provides 



228 INTEMPEKANCE, 

neither ransom nor avenger. But there is an Avenger, 
While these sacrifices are smoking on their thousand 
altars, through the length and breadth of our land, the 
Ruler of the nations is bringing upon us the penalties of 
his laws, in the consequences of breaking them. Even 
now, He who renders to every land, as to every man, 
according to its works, is showing us that He is as strict 
to visit with suffering those who violate his organic and 
moral laws, as he is ready to accumulate good upon those 
who observe them. The fields of our great country, 
which He has charged with the elements of plenty, — 
which are, every year, waiting to be bountiful, — which 
He waters, ' that they may bud and bring forth, and give 
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater,' are becoming 
like the field of the slothful man of old. They are ' over- 
grown with thorns ; nettles are covering the face thereof; 
and the stone walls thereof are broken down.' The 
hand and the mind of the cultivator are struck with the 
palsy of intemperance. A great portion of the bread- 
corn, which the land, grateful for even niggardly cul- 
ture, pours into the husbandman's bosom, is snatched 
from his children's mouths for the craving maw of the 
distillery ; and when that which God gave as the sup- 
porter of life has been converted into its destroyer, the 
vessels that waft the destruction to the nations on the 
Baltic, the Mediterranean, and the Black Seas, bring 
back from those nations, and at their own price, the very 
bread of which we have first robbed ourselves, in order 
that we may ruin them." 

The law was enacted, and Judge Crosby, agent of 
the Massachusetts Temperance Union, sent out a circular, 
which embodied an urgent appeal to the friends of tem- 
perance everywhere to sustain the majesty of law, and 
work for the general good of the cause. After suggest- 
ing some methods, he concludes by saying, u Remember 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 229 

that deliverance from the evils of the rum traffic and use 
is too great a blessing to be obtained without great labor. 
Would you have angels' joy ? Do angels' work : visit 
the sick — feed the hungry — clothe the naked — bind 
up the broken heart — and wipe away the tear of the 
drunkard's wife ; and will not the laborer have his hire ? " 

In 1846 occurred what was called the " Nott contro- 
versy." Dr. Nott, President of Union College, entered 
the field as a* temperance lecturer, and by the power of 
his commanding eloquence and distinguished scholarship, 
he drew large and appreciative audiences, and exerted a 
wide influence. But, notwithstanding his finished pro- 
ductions, many took exception to the whole thing, be- 
cause of an inclination which was manifest to favor the 
use of wines, as largely exempt from alcoholic influence. 
Total abstinence had come to be a thing of meaning 
among the people, and it was feared that such authority 
would be so perverted as to produce bad practical re- 
sults. Eminent men took issue against him, and the 
contest was warm ; but it was finally settled by the bold 
statement of the venerable president, which left no doubt 
as to where he stood : " I hold to the utter abandon- 
ment of the use, as a beverage, of distilled or fermented 
liquors of every sort, especially of wines, whether good 
or bad, having much or little alcohol in them ; " and this 
is the language with which he addressed the venders : — 

" Brethren, inn-keepers, grocers ; whose business it 
has been to sell to drinkers the drunkard's drink, has it 
never occurred to your minds that the liquors dispensed 
were destined, though unseen by you, to blanch some 
glow of health, to wither some blossom of hope, to dis- 
turb some asylum of peace, to pollute some sanctuary 
of innocence, or plant gratuitous, perhaps enduring mis- 
ery in some bosom of joy ? Have you never in imagina- 
tion followed the wretched inebriate, whose glass you 



230 INTEMPERANCE, 

Lave poured out, or whose jug or bottle you have filled, 
— have you never, in imagination, followed him to his 
unblessed and comfortless abode ? Have you never 
mentally witnessed the faded cheek and tearful eye of 
his broken-hearted wife — never witnessed the wistful 
look and stifled cry of his terror-stricken children, wait- 
ing at nightfall his dreaded return, and marked the 
thrill of horror which the approaching sound of his foot- 
steps sent across their bosoms ? Have you never, in 
thought, marked his rude entrance, his ferocious look, 
his savage yell, and that demoniacal frenzy under the 
influence of which — father, husband, as he was — he 
drove both wife and children forth, exposed to the win- 
try blast and the peltings of the pitiless storm, or, deny- 
ing them even this refuge, how he has smitten them 
both to the earth beneath his murderous arm ? 

" And ye, men of fortune, manufacturers, importers, 
wholesale dealers, will you not, for the sake of the 
young and the old, the rich, the poor, the happy, the 
miserable, — in one word, for the sake of our common 
humanity, in all the states and forms in which it is pre- 
sented, — will you not shut up your distilleries, counter- 
mand your orders, and announce the Heaven-approved 
resolution never hereafter to do aught to swell the issue 
of these waters of woe and death with which this young 
republic is already flooded ? Have you never thought, 
as you rolled out and delivered to the purchaser his 
cask, how many mothers must mourn, how many wives 
must suffer, how many children must supplicate, how 
many men of virtue must be corrupted, men of honor 
debased, and of intelligence demented, by partaking of 
that fatal poison ? These are evils which God registers 
in his book of remembrance * and which the day of judg- 
ment will bring to light ; for at home and abroad, in the 
city and the country, in the solitude and by the wayside, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 231 

it is not blessings, but curses, that the venders of intoxi- 
cating liquors dispense to their customers." 

The reformation received a new impetus in 1849 by 
the arrival of Father Mathew from Ireland. He had 
been a zealous laborer among his own countrymen, in- 
ducing thousands to sign the pledge, and encouraging 
them in every way to hold on in the good way. His 
fame had spread to these shores, and much was hoped 
for, especially among those of his own nationality, by 
his peculiar force and tact. They flocked about him, 
and listened to him as they would not listen to any other 
on the blessings of temperance, and the importance of 
taking a decided stand for it. On one occasion, an old 
man kept drawing nearer to his side, until within reach 
of his hand, when Father Mathew placed it upon his 
head in blessing. The astonished subject looked up and 
stammered forth, — 

"And here ye are a blessing a hot-headed Orange- 
man!" alluding to a political distinction of his own 
country. 

" I don't care if you are a ?em<m-man," said the fervid 
apostle, "if you will sign the pledge and keep it." 

He went through the country, awakening an interest 
in the grand work wherever he journeyed. At all points 
the people did him honor as the champion of a good 
cause. At Washington he was invited to a seat within 
the bar of the House, and several handsome tributes 
were paid to his worth by some of the first men in the 
country. General Cass said, — 

"This is but a complimentary notice to a distinguished 
man just arrived among us, and well does he merit it. 
He is a stranger to us personally, but he has won a 
world-wide renown. He comes among us upon a mis- 
sion of benevolence, not unlike Howard, whose name 
and deeds rank high in the annals of philanthropy, and 



232 INTEMPERANCE, 

who sought to carry hope and comfort into the darkest 
cells, and to alleviate the moral and physical condition 
of their unhappy tenants. He comes to break the bonds 
of the captive, and to set the prisoner free ; to redeem 
the lost ; to confirm the wavering ; and to aid in saving 
all from the dangers and temptations of intemperance. 
It is a noble mission, and nobly is he fulfilling it." 

Societies sprang into existence that were made to bear 
his name, and multitudes ascribed their salvation, from a 
temporal foe at least, to his efforts. 

L. M. Sargent was a young man of collegiate educa- 
tion, who prepared himself for the legal profession, but, 
inheriting sufficient pecuniary resources to enable him to 
rise independent of that, and having decided literary 
taste, he took the pen in defence of the popular cause, 
and by his books and tracts he disseminated widely the 
spirit of resistance against the nation's enemy. 

"Father Taylor" was another warrior in the ranks. 
Dr. Jewett says of him, — 

" I have a very distinct recollection of his speech at 
a temperance soiree, got up by the ladies of Charles- 
town, Mass. All matters connected with it had been 
happily arranged, and u Father Taylor " was in one of 
his best moods. After presenting to the assembled 
throng some startling views of the terrible system on 
which the ladies were then waging a pretty vigorous 
war, he closed by one of those bursts of eloquence which 
it would seem impossible to forget. Scores, perhaps 
hundreds, now living in sight of the granite shaft, will 
remember the occasion, and, if they shall peruse these 
pages, will bear witness to the accuracy of the report I 
am about to make of his words, after the lapse of almost 
thirty years : — 

" i And here it is yet, the accursed system, to plague 
and torture us, although we have exposed its villanies 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 233 

until it would seem that Satan himself ought to be 
ashamed to have any connection with it. I am not sure 
but he is, but some of his servants have more brass and 
less shame than their master. Yes, here it is yet ; and 
over there, too, in the great city, — the Athens of 
America, where the church spires, as they point up- 
ward, are almost as thick as the masts of the shipping 
along the wharves, — all the machinery of the drunkard- 
making, soul-destroying business is in perfect running 
order, from the low grog holes on the dock — kept open 
to ruin my poor sailor boys — to the great black estab- 
lishments in Still House Square, which are pouring out 
the elements of death, even on God's holy day, and send- 
ing up a smoke as from the pit forever and ever ! And 
your wives and daughters, even as they walk to their 
churches on Sunday, brush the very skirts of their silk 
dresses against the mouths of open grog shops that gape 
by the way. And your poorhouses are full, and your 
courts and prisons are rilled with the victims of 'this in- 
fernal rum traffic ; and your homes are full of sorrow, 
and the hearts of your wives and mothers ; and yet the 
system is tolerated. Yes, and when we ask some men 
what is to be done about it, they tell you you can't stop 
it ! No, you can't stop it ! And yet ' (darting across the 
platform, and pointing in the direction of the monu- 
ment, he exclaimed, in a voice that pierced one's ears 
like the blare of a trumpet), 'there's Bunker Hill, and 
you say you can't stop it ! And up yonder are Lexington 
and Concord, where your fathers fought for the right, 
and bled and died. And you look on those monuments 
and boast of the heroism of your fathers, and then tell 
us we m'^six; submit to be taxed and tortured by this rum 
business, and we can't stop it ! No ! And yet ' (draw- 
ing himself up to his full height, and expanding his nat- 
urally broad chest as though the words he would utter 



234 INTEMPERANCE, 

had blocked up the usual avenues of speech, and were 
about to force their way out by an explosion, he ex- 
claimed, in a sort of whispered scream), ' your fathers 
— your patriotic fathers — could make a cup of tea for 
his Britannic majesty out of a whole cargo, and you 
can't cork up a gin-jug! Ha!'" 

Such was "Father Taylor," the sailor preacher. "His 
name and fame had reached distant states and cities, and 
distinguished scholars and statesmen would, when in 
Boston on the Sabbath, find their way to the Mariners' 
chapel, to listen to the man of the sea, who got his di- 
ploma before the mast, whose theology was about as 
variable as the wind and the weather, and yet whose 
earnestness and native eloquence had power to capti- 
vate and hold in rapt attention, often for a full hour, the 
most gifted and highly cultivated in the land, while 
bringing tears to the eyes of bronzed and hard men, as 
he cheered the desponding, startled the thoughtless and 
indifferent, and awakened in the breasts of many of the 
charmed circle before him aspirations for a higher and 
better life." 

In what was called the Washingtonian movement 
there came a new and novel feature to the work. 
Drunkards from the lowest depths of degradation lifted 
themselves up, and went on to the stage with their 
thrilling narratives of how they fell and rose again, and 
it created a sensation almost without a parallel. Under 
the influence of that movement, thousands signed the 
pledge, and were saved to themselves, their families, 
and their country. All along down through the path- 
way of the years, there have not been wanting faithful 
workers in this part of the vineyard. They are a noble 
host, and their names would make a long list. They 
live in the memories and hearts of men, and whatever 
they have done for the good of their race will meet its 
appropriate reward. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 235 

There is one more name, without which our galaxy 
would not be complete — John B. Gough. He still 
lives, and the world knows him, and what he has done. 
The power of his resistless eloquence to touch the 
heart and sway the multitude is seen and felt by all 
who have heard him. Words cannot describe it, but, 
as a* specimen of his early efforts, we give the following 
paragraph in closing : — 

" What fills the almshouses and jails ? What brings 
yon trembling wretch upon the gallows ? It is drink. 
And we might call upon those in the tomb to break 
forth. Ye mouldering victims ! wipe the grave dust 
crumbling from your brow ; stalk forth, in your tattered 
shrouds and bony whiteness, to testify against the drink ! 
Come, come forth from the gallows, you spirit-maddened 
man-slayer ! give up your bloody knife, and stalk forth 
to testify against it ! Crawl from the slimy ooze, ye 
drowned drunkards, and with suffocation's blue and 
livid lips speak out against the drink ! Unroll the rec- 
ord of the past, and let the recording angel read out 
the murder indictments written in God's book of re- 
membrance ! Ay, let the past be unfolded, and the 
shrieks of victims wailing be borne down upon the night 
blast! Snap your burning chains, ye denizens of the 
pit, and come up sheeted in the fire, dripping with the 
flames of hell, and with your trumpet tongues testify 
against the damnation of the drink ! " 

Of those who began this work, some are living to-day, 
and I should like to stand now and see the mighty en- 
terprise as it rises before them. JThey worked hard ; 
they lifted the first turf, prepared the way in which to 
lay the corner-stone ; they laid it amid persecution and 
storms. They worked under the surface, and men al- 
most forgot that there were busy hands laying the solid 
foundation far down beneath. By and by they got the 



236 INTEMPERANCE, 

foundation above the surface, and then commenced an- 
other storm of persecution. Now we see the superstruc- 
ture, pillar after pillar, tower after tower, column after 
column, with the capitals emblazoned, " Love, truth, 
sympathy, and good- will to all men." Old men gaze 
upon it as it grows up before them. They will not live 
to see it completed, but they see in faith the crowning 
cope-stone set upon it. Meek-eyed women weep as it 
grows in beauty ; children strew the pathway of work- 
men with flowers. We do not see its beauty yet ; we 
do not see the magnificence of the superstructure yet, 
because it is in process of erection. Scaffolding, ropes, 
ladders, workmen ascending and descending, mar the 
beauty of the building; but by and by, when the hosts 
who have labored shall come up over a thousand battle- 
fields, waving with bright grain, never again to be 
crushed in the distillery"; through vineyards under trel- 
lised vines, with grapes hanging with all their purple 
glory, never again to be pressed into that which can 
debase and degrade mankind ; when they shall come 
through orchards, under trees hanging thick with golden, 
pulpy fruit, never to be turned into that which can in- 
jure and debase ; when they shall come up to the last 
distillery, and destroy it ; to the last stream of liquid 
death, and dry it up; to the last weeping wife, and 
wipe her tears gently away ; to the last little child, and 
lift him up to stand where God wills that mankind 
should stand ; to the last drunkard, and nerve him to 
burst the burning fetters, and make a glorious accom- 
paniment to the song 'of freedom by the clanking of his 
broken chain — then, ah, then ! will the cope-stone be 
set upon it, the scaffolding will fall with a crash, and 
the building will start in its wondrous beauty before an 
astonished world. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 237 



CHAPTER XV. 

Temperance Societies. 

UNITED ACTION, FIRST NATIONAL TEMPERANCE CONVENTION. — VIEW 
OF DR. HITCHCOCK. — MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL. — REV. JOHN 
MARSH. — WORLD'S TEMPERANCE CONVENTION AT LONDON. — TEM- 
PERANCE AND LIFE INSURANCE. — SONS OF TEMPERANCE. — GOOD 
TEMPLARS. — THEIR ORIGIN. — FATHER BRISTOL. — TEMPLARS OF 
HONOR AND TEMPERANCE. — EXTRACT FROM TEMPLARS' MANUAL. — 
RECHABITES. — GOOD SAMARITANS. — IS TEMPERANCE A FAILURE ? 

"Union is strength." A general cannot fight his 
battles without an army of disciplined soldiers. They 
must be organized, equipped, and labor with some con- 
certed plan of action, or failure will be written upon 
every attempt. So these able and efficient workers in 
the temperance movement thought, and they went to 
work to marshal their forces and decide upon some def- 
inite plan of action, some systematic method of pro- 
cedure. A high purpose urged them onward. Their 
eyes were fixed upon a grand consummation — upon the 
time when victory should perch on their banners, and 
the world should be free from the dominion of intem- 
perance. It nerved them to mighty efforts. Such re- 
sults were worthy of united and persistent action, and by 
such only could they be obtained. It was no sectional 
consideration. The whole land was suffering, and the 
plan must embrace the uttermost border. Most of those 
who were deeply interested were men engaged in 
preaching the everlasting gospel, and their hearts were 
absorbed in the work ; but how could the Heaven- 



238 INTEMPERANCE, 

appointed truths with which they had to do, have any 
power over the hearts and consciences of men while 
they were hardened and seared under the stupefying 
potions of an ever-active poison ? A way must be paved 
whereon truth must do its legitimate work, or their 
labors were fruitless. Thus they reasoned, and upon 
this they acted. From the commencement of the agita- 
tion there had been a steady progression of the ideas and 
principles of reform. The opinions and efforts of these 
men had been like leaven, silently working its way into 
society, and showing its influence everywhere. The ra- 
pidity of action may be seen in the fact, that in six years 
from the first inauguration of effort, it was estimated 
there were, in different parts of our country, over four 
thousand temperance societies, with over half a million 
of members ; fifteen hundred distilleries had ceased their 
operations, and four thousand merchants had ceased to 
continue their unholy traffic in the unwholesome bever- 
age. It was also supposed that a million and a half of 
persons had abstained from the use of ardent spirits, and 
that twenty thousand families were in ease and comfort 
who otherwise would have been cursed with poverty and 
wretchedness. This greatly cheered and encouraged 
those who were interested in the matter, and agencies 
were multiplied, new conditions of working added ; so 
that the year following that which made the above cal- 
culations, the statistics had nearly doubled, and the in- 
terest had extended not only through the land, but also 
to our ships on the ocean ; and those who were wont to 
set sail with this in their cargo, now knew it no more. 

It would swell the present volume far beyond our in- 
tention, to follow out, minutely, the different societies, 
with their varied forms, that have been springing up, 
here and there, all along down the pathway of years. 
Their name is Legion. "While we give our attention to 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 239 

a few of the more prominent, and seek to trace out the 
advance of the public mind in these, we yet commend the 
many for their works of mercy and labors of love, all of 
which shall be counted in the summing up of those things 
which are to redeem, as we hope, our fair heritage 
from the curse that has so long been upon it. The first 
National Temperance Convention was held at Philadel- 
phia, on the 24th of May, 1833, in the Hall of Indepen- 
dence. There were present at that meeting four hundred 
delegates, from twenty-one states. It was pronounced 
the largest assembly that ever convened together for 
any moral purpose, in this or any other country. The 
presiding officers were strong men. Their " object was, 
by the diffusion of information, and the exertion of a 
kind moral influence, to extend the principles and bless- 
ings of temperance throughout the world." To us, who 
occupy the present high plane of temperance reform, it 
seems strange to observe the action on this occasion ; but 
it is to be remembered that the stalwart conditions of 
manhood are not to be looked for in infancy. It was a 
promising little thing, but it was not grown up. They 
had a long and animating discussion upon " a resolution 
which expressed the sentiment that the traffic in ardent 
spirits, to be used as a beverage, is morally wrong, and 
ought to be universally abandoned." It was finally 
passed; and sa} r s a writer of the time, "Had the conven- 
tion done nothing else but,. after examination, expressed 
their opinion on this point, they had done a deed which 
would have marked them as benefactors to their country." 
Such they were, and as such are they regarded to this 
day. Their ideas became the basis of reform ; but grad- 
ually the lines were drawn closer, and the conditions 
made more rigid, until in 1836, when the American 
Temperance Union was formed on the principle of total 
abstinence, and was destined to become the leading 



240 INTEMPEBANCE, 

organization of the land. The pledge of the Union was 
as follows : " We, the undersigned, do agree that we will 
not use intoxicating liquors as a beverage, nor traffic in 
them ; that we will not provide them as an article of en- 
tertainment, or for persons in our employment, and that 
in all suitable ways we will discountenance their use 
throughout the community." The sweeping nature of 
this created much opposition. Some doubted the propri- 
ety of having anything to do with the exclusion of fer- 
mented drinks ; some believed that wine and beer were 
essential to a certain class ; especially was the latter useful 
to our foreign population ; and others dreaded the agita- 
tion and conflict in various ways. About this time, Dr. 
Hitchcock, of Amherst College, came out with a declara- 
tion that was of no uncertain sound. " I have watched," 
he says, " the reformation of some dozens of inebriates, 
and have been compelled to witness the relapse of many 
who had run well for a time ; and I say, without any fear 
of contradiction, that the greatest obstacle to the refor- 
mation of drunkards is the habitual use of wine, beer, 
cider, and cordials by the respectable members of the com- 
munity ; as in very many, I believe in most, cases, in- 
temperate habits are formed, the love of alcoholic drinks 
induced, by the habitual use of these lighter beverages. 
I rejoice to say, that a very great majority of the several 
hundreds of clergymen of my acquaintance are decided 
friends of the temperance cause, and, both by preaching 
and practice, inculcate total abstinence from all that can 
intoxicate, as a beverage." 

In this way, and under such patronage, did the idea 
gain strength, and obtain practical lodgment in the 
minds of the people ; and from the parent societies there 
went forth innumerable local branches that contributed 
to the vigor and development of the whole. In 1840, 
the famous Washingtonian Society came into existence, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 241 

having for its prime movers a few from the lowest ranks 
of intemperance. These banded together, and bound 
themselves to the work of reform. They told their de- 
termination to others, and it went, like an electric cur- 
rent, into the very heart of society. Everywhere 
drunkards began to think of the possibility of doing 
likewise. Immense meetings were called and addressed 
by these reclaimed ones. We have before spoken of 
John Hawkins, and of his wonderful restoration. A 
large meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, Boston — so 
large that the ancient building was not capable of their 
accommodation ; and there he made a speech which con- 
tained these words : " When I compare the past with 
the present, my days of intemperance with my present 
peace and sobriety, my past degradation with my present 
position in this hall — the Cradle of Liberty — I am over- 
whelmed. It seems to be holy ground. I never ex- 
pected to see this hall. I had heard of it in boyhood. 
It was here that Otis and the elder Adams argued the 
principles of independence ; and we now meet here to 
declare ourselves free and independent ; to make a second 
declaration, not quite so lengthy as the old one, but it 
promises life, libert}^ and the pursuit of happiness. Our 
forefathers pledged their lives, and fortunes, and sacred 
honors. We, too, will pledge our honor, and our life, 
but our fortunes have gone for rum. Poor though we 
drunkards are, and miserable, even in the gutter, we will 
pledge our lives to maintain sobriety." Numbers flocked 
to sign the pledge, and a City Society was at once 
formed, which, at the latter part of the year, had sent out 
two hundred and seventeen delegates, to one hundred 
and sixty towns, in five different states, on errands of 
love. Baltimore was the centre from whence these in- 
fluences radiated. The Rev. John Marsh, who was for 
thirty years corresponding secretary of the American 
15 



242 INTEMPERANCE, 

Temperance Union, thus writes with reference to this 
period : "I was induced to go to Baltimore to attend the 
first anniversary of the Washington Temperance Society, 
and there saw one thousand men stand in a line as re- 
formed men, and moved in procession with thousands more 
about the city. It was a most interesting spectacle, as 
their wives and children stood on the sidewalks, many of 
them weeping for joy as they beheld their husbands and 
fathers marching onward in sobriety and moral dignity. 
In proof of the genuineness of the work, it was ascertained 
that the whiskey inspections for the city were reduced, in 
six months, forty thousand five hundred and eighty-two 
gallons, — a decrease of twenty -five per cent., — and that 
great peace and quietness everywhere prevailed. These 
extraordinary movements at Baltimore and elsewhere, 
among our drunken population, filled all hearts with joy 
at our sixth anniversary, and at the third National Con- 
vention at Saratoga Springs. In the annual report which 
I presented in May, I condensed, as far as possible, the 
wonderful events which had transpired, and which will 
he contemplated, when these generations have passed 
away, as almost incredible ; but never to be surrendered 
as wild enthusiasm and profitless hallucination. Never, 
probably, was there a large body of men, of high intel- 
gence and business character, so melted into gratitude, 
joy, and love, as were the attendants on that National 
Convention at Saratoga Springs, in the month of August, 
at the relation of their experience by several of the 
reformed, and the relation of numerous most affecting 
incidents by others. As chairman of the business com- 
mittee, I found no difficulty in framing suitable resolu- 
tions for the occasion ; and where there was such a 
prevalence of love and gratitude, the presiding officer 
had no occasion for force to control the meeting. It was 
a sort of millennium to thousands who had hoped and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 243 

prayed .that sin and sorrow from intoxicating drinks 
might be done away. " Never before," said a venera- 
ble member, " did five hundred and sixty men assemble, 
and continue da}^s as a deliberative body, without one 
unkind look or action." It is thought that, under these 
reformatory influences, one hundred and fifty thousand 
decidedly intemperate men took the pledge, and aban- 
doned their cups. 

Dr. Beard, one of our noted countrymen, — a scholar 
and a philanthropist, — was travelling about this time in 
foreign countries. He had previously caught the spirit 
of the new crusade, and he carried it with him, and was 
instrumental in kindling the flame of feeling against in- 
temperance wherever he went. This, in conjunction with 
American interest, culminated in the idea of a World's 
Temperance Convention, where, from all quarters of the 
globe, the advocates of the cause might gather together, 
and by united wisdom, and consultation speed on the 
work so gloriously begun. It was decided that London 
should be the theatre of action in the important matter. 
A voyage to Europe was not so common a thing as now, 
and only thirty-one among all our states were found 
ready to go; but these were a host in themselves — 
strong, vigorous, and ready for the work. The single 
state of New York furnished eight of these, and Massa- 
chusetts the same number. " In England there were 
high-raised expectations from this gathering of the friends 
of reform." "Asa mere matter of curiosity," said the 
Teetotal Times, a temperance organ of that place, " there 
will be much to interest. Who does not wish to see the 
founders of great systems, the originators of wise plans, 
the first apostles of important truths ? We pray that 
the spirit of wisdom and charity may shed its choicest 
influences on the assembly, and that its deliberations 
may prove instrumental, through the divine blessing, in 
accomplishing a vast amount of good." 



244 INTEMPERANCE, 

" The convention sat five days, listening to able papers 
which were prepared for the occasion ; to discussions of 
important resolutions ; to reports of different countries, 
and to projects of reform, and greater extension of the 
temperance cause. Says the indefatigable secretary al- 
ready quoted, " While in England, I spent not a little 
time and strength in kindling up a civil war. I saw 
there the beer-and-brandy-god wringing out the life- 
blood from thousands and tens of thousands of her sons. 
And yet it was England's greatest benefactor ! Every- 
where the god was praised, as bringing vast revenues to 
the crown ; as the life of the army and of the navy ; as the 
source and spring of all mental energy and social happi- 
ness. The licensed victuallers of London alone paid the 
government eleven millions annually. So I proposed, in 
my speech at Exeter Hall, that, as London was full of 
statues to distinguished benefactors, a statue should be 
erected in Hyde Park to England's greatest friend, the 
beer-and-brandy-god, higher than any statue ever con- 
ceived ; and, to carry it out as it should be, I would have, 
on one side, carved by the most eminent sculptors, groups 
of miserable drunkards, raving in delirium tremens, tear- 
ing the hair of their wives, beating their children ; and 
on another side I would have paupers, lunatics, and 
criminals, in chains and on the gallows through strong 
drink ; on another, parents pressing into the horrid 
temple, and leading their children up to their god, to 
drink early of his cup. But not ridicule, it was found, 
could move England in her self-complacency. There 
must be war — exterminating war. ' Down with the 
tyrant ! ' I cried ; so Ave found it in America ; and as I 
said this, I was received with shouts and applause. The 
public press responded, and said, ' These Americans have 
put some new thoughts into our minds. We confess we 
are converts to their views ; and we are greatly mis- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 245 

taken in the signs of the times, if the late interviews 
which the teetotalers have had with the Americans 
have not produced similar results in the minds of others. 
Hence a crusade against the traffic has already com- 
menced.' " 

i Thus were things made to act and react in the great 
work. Men clasped hands from across the sea, and 
pledged themselves to labor for the redemption of a 
sin-cursed people. In 1850 there arose an agitation of 
the subject in connection with life insurance companies. 
The attention of the American mind was enlisted by the 
statement of an English fact, to the effect that " the 
number of deaths in the Temperance Insurance Company 
were less than half of that insured in all other companies 
of the kingdom ; while they suffered no losses from in- 
temperance." It therefore took upon itself this form : 
" Should a temperance man join in a company with a 
hard-drinking man, or even a moderate drinker, much 
more an intemperate man, his money might for years be 
going to the families of such, while his family, through 
his long continuance in life from temperance, would have 
no benefit." The more the subject was contemplated, 
the more were all impressed with the importance of a 
company on the abstinence principle. The very existence 
of such an institution, it was thought, would be a pow- 
erful auxiliary to the cause of temperance in general, 
besides operating as a restraint upon the individuals im- 
mediately concerned. Strong men indorsed the scheme, 
and, after much deliberation, it was decided to make the 
attempt. A constitution was adopted, and a capital of 
one hundred thousand dollars fixed upon, in one thou- 
sand shares of one hundred dollars each, on which ten 
dollars were to be paid at the beginning. Officers were 
chosen, and all things bade fair for a successful opening ; 
but, alas ! public sentiment was not sufficiently advanced 



246 INTEMPEKANCE, 

to afford the requisite basis. One who was interested in 
it says, " Other cities wished for the location ; moneyed 
men in New York were already stockholders in institu- 
tions which might be injured by this ; a. spirit of rivalry 
and jealous}^ sprang up ; temperance men might be good 
moral reformers, but no managers of moneyed institu- 
tions ; and so, from a failure to get the stock taken, it 
died out, when, it is even now believed, it might have 
become one of our greatest insurance companies, and 
have been of incalculable importance to the cause of 
temperance." 

The subject is again revived, and efforts are being 
made at the present time to secure the achievement of 
this important result. In addition to the various tem- 
perance societies that have sprung up in almost every 
town and state in the Union, there are various orders of 
equally wide dominion, having for their ostensible object 
the suppression of the evils of intemperance in every 
prevailing form. Some of these are secret organizations, 
and, consequently, the working of the internal machinery 
is concealed from public view. The tree is known by 
its fruits, is an inspired statement ; and every one has 
this principle before him to determine his judgment upon 
their action. 

The ." Sons of Temperance " was one of the first in- 
stitutions of the kind, and was organized in 1842, and 
now numbers thirty-seven grand and about two thou- 
sand subordinate divisions, located in the different states 
and territories, and extending over the borders into other 
dominions. This order has secret pass-words for admit- 
tance to their meetings, and the members are required 
to make weekly payments, which constitute a fund to- 
wards the relief of their suffering brethren, or whatever 
the general interest of the association may demand. At 
their twenty-eighth annual session, which was held in 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 247 

Chicago last year, the committee on the state of the order 
thus spoke : "In relation to political action, its neces- 
sity and duty should be impressed on every member 
of our order. We are bound to vote temperance as 
strongly as we are bound to practise it. But of the 
mode of doing it, every member must be left free to decide 
for himself. It must be wholly left to each man's judg- 
ment and conscience. The state of our Order, and its 
success in the future, depend not so much on what is 
done within us, as upon what is done outside divisions. 
We shall be, and ought to be, judged by our work. Many 
things are to be done ; the inebriate is to be reclaimed, 
the pledge is to be circulated, the press is to be sustained, 
the lecture field to be supplied, the young are to be 
trained to temperance in the cadet section and the Sun- 
day school, the ballot is to be invoked, prohibitory legis- 
lation is to be secured and sustained, not only in our 
states and provinces, but by national action, where that 
is requisite ; to do all this, that agency must be used 
that does its work the best. The future of our order is, 
therefore, in our own hands, and dependent upon our- 
selves." There are "Sons," and "Daughters," and 
" Cadets " of Temperance ; the latter being a youthful 
band, who, after the requisite training, are to be received 
to the fostering care of the parent society. Their under- 
lying principle is total abstinence. 

/""Another strong organization is the " Good Templars," 
which originated in 1851, and now numbers forty-five 
grand and about six thousand subordinate lodges. It 
has become a mighty power in the. United States, reach- 
ing in some way almost every town, village, and county 
in the land. The total membership of the last report 
was nearly four hundred thousand. This, too, is a secret 
agency. An effort has been made to trace it to its origin > 
but without any satisfactory result. A history of the 



248 INTEMPERANCE, 

order lias been issued by J. Newton Pierce, of Pennsyl- 
vania, a prominent official of the ranks, and whatever 
we give we state upon his authority. "No record," he 
says, " is now to be found in the printed literature of 
our country that gives any account of its origin." It has 
seemed as if tradition and memory were to be the only 
sources from which we could possibly derive any infor- 
mation relative to the inception of the Order and the 
first meeting held. "The following paragraph," he says, 
" lately going the rounds of the temperance papers, adds 
but little certain knowledge upon the subject ; nor is it 
correct in point of fact, as it is number twenty-two (!) 
on the record and on its charter ; " but it shows " the 
early struggles to popularize a temperance order that has 
since spread itself so rapidly and widely over our fair 
land, that its name is in every hamlet, its light in nearly 
every borough, and a Grand Lodge in almost every state. 
" Probably the oldest Good Templars' Lodge in the 
world is the Senaca Chief, in New York. One after 
another, it saw its sisters sink in despair and die ; but 
the old veteran Chief had no thought of dying, and to- 
day, erect and vigorous, it gives a kindly smile and 
encouraging word to the great army that has sprung up 
around it. Its history is one of extensive notice. The 
members, each for himself and herself, made a solemn 
resolve, and wrote it on the innermost tablet of the 
heart, that, while life should last, the lodge-room should 
foe lighted every week, the fire burning, and the door 
open to the inebriate. Week after week, a few devoted 
members met in that room. There was but little busi- 
ness to be done, save to put their hands into their pock- 
ets, and pay the rent ; but little encouragement in the 
future. But never wearying, never despairing, that 
little band kept vigilant guard over the precious princi- 
ples and secrets that to-day are implanted in the breasts 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 249 

of over half a million Good Templars." This last esti- 
mate, it will be seen, is a little higher than the official 
report ; but there is no question but that the numerical 
strength of the order is rapidly increasing. Mr. Pierce 
thus relates his interview with Dr. R. C. Dunham, of 
Seneca Falls, one of those earliest interested in the pro- 
ject. He was seeking to trace out things to their source, 
and called upon him for information. " We found this 
veteran in the temperance cause at home. He accom- 
panied us to the hall of their lodge, and there, upon one 
of its walls, we saw the original charter of ' Seneca Chief 
Lodge, No. 22, I. O. of G. T,' granted by Garry Cham- 
bers, G. W. C. T., January 6, 1853. And there he 
recounted how, night after night, they met in that room, 
during those trying years from 1855 to 1864, when the 
lodges all around them, and all over the state, were 
going down. When their Grand Lodge ceased to exist, 
for several years they made up their own pass-word ; for 
they knew not to whom to send to obtain it. And yet, 
during all that time, they never had a thought of giving 
up. That time-worn and yet beautiful silk banner, the 
early pride of their lodge, was never allowed to trail in 
the dust, or to become a by-word and a mockery. That 
beautiful figure upon it, extending charity to fallen man, 
is yet bright and vivid, and, as ever, emblematic of the 
motto above it, of ' Faith, Hope, and Charity.' The 
name of Nathaniel Curtis, a reformed Washingtonian, is 
associated with the early history of the society. ' To 
have conceived this order, as it now exists,' says their 
faithful historian, ' would have required a mind of no 
ordinary calibre. It might not be necessary to have the 
most scientific training, or the highest literary culture ; 
it might not be essential to have the most refined poeti- 
cal taste, or mathematical acumen; but it must be a 
mind pre-eminently practical, capable of grasping the 



250 INTEMPERANCE, 

realities of life, and moulding them in such form as to 
make them practical for good. Our Order was not like 
a ship which starts not on her voyage until every part is 
fully perfected, and all needed supplies fully stored 
awajr. It was first started by a spirit of injured pride 
and dissatisfaction, by a young mind that had no com- 
prehension of the magnitude of the work, nor of the 
moral machinery necessary for its success. Not until it 
passed from his hands, and was conducted by an older 
and wiser head, did it grow. Then was it found neces- 
sary to modify, amend, and add to its proportions, to 
make it effective and self-sustaining.' 

" The ' Ritual ' was afterwards put into the hands of 
Rev. Dr. Bristol, and, through his influence and work- 
ing, the Order assumed a permanency and character 
before unknown. His faith was strong in the founda- 
tion of Good Templar principles, and that they must 
succeed in the overthrow of the rum power, and the 
establishment of prohibition. He deplored the disposi- 
tion of some dissatisfied spirits, who will ever waste 
time in picking at the ritual and private work, instead 
of working for temperance with the best means at hand. 
1 It were much better,' says he, ' to put up with the few 
errors we have, than to rush into others we know not of, 
and work diligently and earnestly for the cause with the 
means placed in our hands. Man is not perfect, and 
never can make so perfect a ritual but that some fine- 
grained literary casuist may pick at what he may think 
he can prove to be an error or defect here or there.' 
He further says that the ritual and the degrees ' were 
designed to furnish temperance work, temperance litera- 
ture, and temperance instruction, for the evening, for 
all lodges, uniformly, everywhere. It was to be the 
work of the evening, and thus would become the bind- 
ing chain that would unite them in one grand army.' 

\ 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 251 

" '. Templars of Honor and Temperance ' is an organi- 
zation that was established in 1845, and now embraces 
twenty Grand Temples, with subordinates in nearly 
every state in the Union. It was intended as a higher 
temperance and fraternal organization, with advance- 
ment by degrees, as the members should be proved 
worthy. From their own ' Manual ' we transcribe words 
which shall introduce the reader to their inner sanctum, 
and disclose the pillars on which their structure rests. 
The badge of a Templar ' is not only a symbol of inno- 
cence and purity, but of obedience to a vow. Long years 
ago, when truth and error were in close conflict, and the 
light of Christian principle was dawning upon the dark 
mountains of Europe, a small but chosen band of Knights 
Templars won the admiration of Christendom by their 
valiant deeds of noble daring. They were bound to- 
gether as brothers by vows of obedience, purity, and 
charity, and consecrated to the defence of the Holy 
Temple and the devout pilgrims who pursued their way 
thither, or knelt at its sacred shrine. Above them, in 
the bloody conflict, had waved the banner of the cross ; 
and when the contest was won, and it floated in triumph 
from the walls and towers of Jerusalem, they ceased not 
their duties, but became the protectors of the oppressed 
and the scourge of the oppressor. They were few in 
number, but dauntless in heart ; for they knew that 
" Truth is might}', and must prevail." We are Tem- 
plars of Honor and Temperance. Our vow is one of 
abstinence and fraternity, our enemy is alcohol, our war 
one of extermination. To be successful, we must be 
united. Each one must add his strength to that of his 
brethren. We must not despise that which the feeblest 
can do. Each snow-flake is a constituent part of that 
mantle with which winter enshrouds the regions of the 
poles ; each rain-drop quickens the mighty pulse of be- 



252 INTEMPERANCE, 

ing. You must each labor for the other and the cause 
in honor and in truth ; you must labor for humanity. 
Crime stalks without, linked with poverty and bloated 
with disease. Time, health, and money are squandered ; 
bread is turned to poison, homes are laid waste, and 
every sacred thing is dishonored. 

" i Fidelity to your vow will make you a true and 
loving, pure and faithful, knight-errant to the human 
race. Your Templar's vow is registered in heaven. 
None but brave men dare take such vows. The open 
enemy and stealthy foe await you. You have a shield 
and spear, and a God above. Stand forth, therefore, 
the champion of eternal principles, and you shall be- 
come pillars in our beautiful temple. You have ap- 
proved our creed, and been admitted to our temple. 
You know how dark is the world, and how miserable 
the condition of those who tarry long at the wine, and 
mingle strong drink. You have seen the darkness dis- 
appear at the approach of light. Read our emblems. 
The five-pointed star symbols to us the first temperance 
movement. Its light struggled with the dark clouds of 
ignorance. Its rays are dim, for it symbols a feeble 
effort. It may have been brilliant to those who first 
beheld it ; but its light penetrated not the deep caverns 
where the demon held his revels, and forged chains for 
his first victims. It served only to show the degrada- 
tion to which the drunkard had fallen, and discover the 
infamy he had drawn around himself and those who 
should have looked to him for counsel, example, and 
support. It showed the road to the drunkard's doom ; 
but it illumined no path that would lead him back to 
the quiet bowers of domestic bliss, and the fair fields of 
social confidence. The star of brighter rays, with its 
six points, reminds us of the Washingtonians. Their 
efforts were noble, and deserve the admiration and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 253 

homage of every heart. Raised by the hand of God 
from the lowest deep of drunkenness, they proved 
that their manhood was not gone ; that even the drunk- 
ard was a man, an immortal man ; that he had the same 
aspirations, the same feelings, the same hopes and fears, 
as other men, down deep in his heart ; that in his soul 
were the same longings for happiness and purity ; that 
with him, in all his degradation, his better nature at 
times would assert his birthright, tell him of his immor- 
tality, and plead with angel eloquence for his redemp- 
tion. He was saved. This was a new era in this god- 
like reform ; it was a stand-point, brilliant with the light 
of hope, upon which the Christian philanthropist could 
place himself, and, by faith, view the redemption of 
every inebriate from the thraldom of intemperance. 
The star enclosed in the typical triangle is the emblem 
of the Sons of Temperance, that noble band of brothers, 
who rallied to continue what the Washingtonians had 
begun. An organized band, it sought to win the ine- 
briate from his cups to a higher life. Its divisions mul- 
tiplied all over the land; its tri-colored triangle was 
borne aloft in every state. Its plan was simple ; its aim 
was noble. Its heart desired to accomplish all ; but its 
arm was too feeble for the task. The temple, brilliant 
with the light of its nine-pointed star, is a symbol of our 
noble order. It brought the experience of the past and 
the wisdom of the present to perfect its organization. 
It is the result of consolidated mind, warmed by the fire 
of glowing hearts. By its ritual, embodying eternal 
truths ; its ceremonies, as beautiful and chaste as ma- 
tured imaginations can conceive ; its signs, and grips, and 
secret tokens, — it lays hold of the strongest elements of 
success and perpetuity, and gathers around its altar 
hearts that never quail, and hands that never falter in 
its life-long crusade against intemperance and wrong. 



254 INTEMPERANCE, 

Gaze upon that altar. It has deep significance to him 
who can read the lessons it imparts. It rests on the 
rock of Temperance, out of which gush crystal streams. 
Its sides are emblazoned with the emblems of truth, 
love, purity, and fidelity. On its top you see the Holy 
Bible, the blest book of God. From its pages come our 
principles and our duties. From Mount Sinai to the 
Mount of Beatitudes, it is resplendent with the truths 
our Order inculcates; and from Olivet to the holy city 
measured by John, gleams the light of hope to us. 
Here, too, is the triangle, enclosing the triple triangle, 
the emblem of our Order. Love, purit}^, and fidelity 
gleam upon its outer bars. The bars of the inner tri- 
angle are bright with our duties to God, to our brothers, 
and ourselves. Obedience to Him who hath created us 
with powers to enjoy the bliss of living, and with minds 
that can contemplate the magnificent grandeur of the 
universe, and apprehend the melody of its sublime and 
harmonious movements ; love to Him whose daily care 
preserves us from death, and crowns us with immortality ; 
worship to Him whose holiness is perfect, whose wisdom 
is infinite, whose power is omnipotent, whose love is 
boundless, whose purity is spotless, and whose fidelity 
is unchanging; justice to our fellows, for it is their 
right ; forgiveness, for we do err ; fraternity, for they 
are our brethren; sustenance to ourselves, for Nature 
demands it ; protection, for our weakness requires it ; 
education, for our immortality desires it. Above these 
stands a lamp. Its ever-burning light is an emblem 
of the warmth of that divine love which illumines 
our path with the light of truth. The group with 
clasped hands, open brows, and honest hearts rep- 
resent fraternity, honor, and sincerity. Our union is 
complete. Each one is bound to all, and all are pledged 
to each one. Our brotherhood is perpetual. Our tern- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 255 

pies rise upon its solid basis in beautiful proportions. 
Each upright pillar supports its dome. May it remain 
firm as the pillars of the globe, and beautiful as the arch 
of heaven ! ' 

44 Order strikes at the root of the great upas tree. It 
contends that the only remedy for the evils of intemper- 
ance is prohibition of the manufacture of and traffic in 
alcoholic beverages, sustained and upheld by correct 
public sentiment. To accomplish this consummation so 
devoutly to be wished for, may require your life-long 
assistance. We ask for none to enter here who do not 
heartily agree to co-operate with us — not for a season 
only, but for life ! Death is the only release from the 
vow you here must take. It is no idle purpose in which 
you must engage. No empty titles or honors will be 
conferred upon you. Devotion to temperance, morality, 
and truth must win the meed of praise. Suffering hu- 
manity demands your constant labor. Self must no 
longer control the will, and be the leading purpose of 
life. Time, talent, and money must be sacrificed for the 
good of your fellow-men. In a world of perishing mor- 
tals you must stand forth as undaunted and firm as those 
heroes who have fought and conquered for the right ; you 
must endure, unmoved and unwearied, the trial of afflic- 
tion and persecution, and trust in God for ultimate 
success." 

The " Independent Order of Rechabites " were intro- 
duced into this country from England in 1842, -and spread 
rapidly through the United States, numbering at one 
time over one hundred thousand; but they afterwards 
declined, and became nearly extinct. A few years since 
they re-organized, and they are again in active opera- 
tion, and have quite a large membership. " Good Sa- 
maritans " are still another order. They were organized 
in the city of New York, in 1847. It is a benefit society, 



256 INTEMPERANCE, 

and they have their working forces distributed in nearly 
every state of the Union. It is their object to reach the 
lower stratum of the drinking population of the cities, 
to go out into the narrow lanes and by-ways, and take 
up the wounded and fallen when others have passed 
them by. The true Samaritan spirit is shown forth in 
this enterprise, and much good has been accomplished. 

From these centres there are yet other radiating points 
that unite in the one grand concentration of clearing the 
world from the vile impurities of intemperance. Chil- 
dren have their " Cold Water Armies," and their " Bands 
of Hope," and it would seem that the world's regenera- 
tion in this matter ought to be close at hand. With all 
these appliances brought to bear upon the people, their 
conversion to the principles and practice of temperance 
should be sure and decided ; and still the streams of 
alcohol are permitted to flow, and men fill their glasses 
and drink until they are no longer manly, and keep 
falling when they ought to rise and assert the dignity of 
their God-given nature. Are all these noble, philan- 
thropic efforts, then, to be called a failure ? Have all 
these good men preached and labored in vain — this 
host of worthies wrought to no purpose ? At the fif- 
teenth anniversary of the American Temperance Socie- 
ty, in 1851, Dr. Cleveland, speaking of progress, said, — 

" When two trains meet, travelling at the rate of 
twenty-five miles an hour, we seem to be going fifty 
when we are going but twenty-five. The croakers say 
we are now going backwards. The question is, whether 
the croakers are right, who say we have done nothing, 
or the temperance workers, who think we have done 
much for which to be thankful. I think we have mowed 
a pretty handsome swath. I am willing to admit, there 
is as much rum drunk now as there was twenty-five years 
ago ; yet it must be remembered, that twenty-five years 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY.. 257 

ago there were but twelve millions of people in th( 
land, whereas now there are twenty-five. If we hi 
reformed no one, we may have kept our twelve millil 
from falling into the sin and ruin of drunkenness." Si 
another, " To speak positively, a mighty work has be! 
accomplished, and few are the men who will not i 
knowledge it. If we had only gained the liberty 
drinking or not drinking, as we pleased ; of having 
not having the drink on our tables, as we pleased ; 
giving workmen drink or not giving, as we pleased, — we! 
should have accomplished a great work. But we have 
gained a vast and most important knowledge of the 
subject of Intemperance ; the nature, cause, and cure of 
drunkenness ; the nature of the alcoholic poisons, and 
subject of adulteration. We have firmly established the 
great principles of temperance ; we have driven liquor 
from our farms, our manufactories, our firesides, our 
sideboards, our shipping, our navy ; from our Christian 
and ministerial families, our pulpits and Christian 
churches, and all missionary stations, and from among 
those who would evangelize the world. Here, under 
God, are the triumphs of temperance." 

It would be cheering to record far grander results, but 
if all that -has been done is only in the line of prepara- 
tion, who does not see that victory is more certain in 
the coming battle, because of the vast forces in training, 
and the burnishing of these mighty weapons ? The ma- 
chinery of the universe is silent and unseen at many points 
of its working, and sometimes there are apparent dis-har- 
mony and confusion, that fill the mind of short-sighted 
mortals with dismay and alarm, lest the world get out of 
tune altogether, and there be no more good in it ; but 
time always straightens out the seeming crookedness, 
and men and nature smile again. So it will doubtless be 
with this moral aspect. It may be dark for a time, but 
it shall have a glorious triumph in the end. 
16 



258 I INTEMPEEANCE, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Adulteeation of Liqttoes. 

Fashion and purity. — the Colorado saloon keeper. — fourcroy, 
the french chemist. — professor lee's statement. — asser- 
tion of dr. story. — strychnine. — stramonium. — the dead 
fishermen. — the irish topers. — cocculus. — confiscation at 
boston. — analytical observations of dr. cox. — purchase of 
new york physicians, — " guide " receipts. — the druggist's 
brandy. — rum. — gin. — beer. 

When Fashion popularized the drinking of spirituous 
liquors, in the times of our forefathers, it was compara- 
tively a pure beverage — pure of its kind. Drunken- 
ness may not have had that peculiarly aggravating char- 
acter that it bears at the present day. It is true that 
alcohol, in its best condition, is nothing less than a poison 
to the human system ; and we have seen how deleterious 
are its influences through its physiological action upon 
mind and body ; but there are poisons more rapid and 
destructive than even this, and the avariciousness of 
men has freely mingled them in the cup which they have 
given their brother man to taste. As if it were not 
enough that it would bring misery and death of itself, 
they have gone to work to intensify it, so as to make the 
effect more disastrous and the result more sure. In what 
other department of trade would corresponding iniquity 
be tolerated ? It may be there are scales upon the eyes 
of the world, and they see not, neither do they know, the 
tricks and frauds that are practised in secret places, that 
shams may take the place of realities. Villany likes 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 259 

concealment, and so it works in by-places, down, back, 
and away, where honesty and integrity would not think 
of going; and there, with barred doors and guarded 
entrances, with hushed voices and stealthy tread, they 
carry on their nefarious doings. In some way or other 
sin will always be found out, and so it has come to be 
known what these deliberate schemes for man-poisoning 
are, and how and by whom they are accomplished. A 
man may be driven in his desperation to counterfeit 
money, that he may be relieved of his distress and per- 
plexity, and close confinement and hard labor in prison 
are considered none too good for him. Public opinion 
frowns, and law executes its stern threats ; but he may 
follow a more infamous trade, and counterfeit that which 
has to do with the most precious of all human interests, 
and still he goes on, while men wonder and the law is 
dumb. In the first case, the man may have been under 
the power of stern necessity, that goaded him on to the 
performance of an action that his better nature revolted 
against ; but in the latter, it is more often a calculating 
policy that would make the piles of wealth accumulate 
higher and faster. It is an effort to obtain money without 
returning an equivalent ; to grow rich without having 
it cost little or nothing. They know that men will have 
a drink that has some stimulating quality ; that it is this 
element which the drinking man demands, and brings 
the effect he seeks, and therefore anything whatever 
that will tend to produce the requisite condition is used. 
If the temporary excitement is gained, no matter how it 
is done, or what the after consequences, he glories in the 
success of his mixture. 

A Colorado saloon keeper said of a rough crowd, " I 
couldn't get their whiskey strong enough to suit them ; 
so, after trying every way, I at last made a mixture of 
oak poison and butternut. I called it the ' sheep-herder's 



260 INTEMPERANCE, 

delight,' and it became a popular drink. The first Pike 
to whom I gave it became frantic with delight ; the next 
took two drinks, and turned a double somerset in front 
of the house ; and the third was a peddler, who, after con- 
siderable indulgence, stole his own pack and hid it in 
the woods." In the low phraseology of a certain class, 
anything to get the " drunk." 

It is the intoxicating constituent in strong drinks that 
is specially objectionable on the ground of temperance, 
and this is extracted from substances through evapora- 
tion and condensation ; it is a product of fermentation. 
The great French chemist, Fourcroy, says, " The forma- 
tion of alcohol takes place at the expense of the destruc- 
tion of a vegetable principle ; thus spirituous fermentation 
is a commencement of the destruction of principles 
formed by vegetation. The acid, or acetous fermenta- 
tion is the second natural movement which contributes 
to reduce vegetable compounds to more simple states of 
composition. Wine, in turning sour, absorbs air ; so 
that a certain portion of the oxygen of the atmosphere 
appears to be necessary to the formation of the acetous 
acid. Finally, after vegetable liquors, or their solid parts 
moistened, have passed to the acid state, their decompo- 
sition continuing, under favorable circumstances (viz., 
a warm temperature, exposure to the air, and the con- 
tact of water), leads them into putrefaction, which ter- 
minates in volatilizing most of the principles under the 
form of gas. Water, carbonic acid, carbonated, and even 
sulphurated hydrogen gas, volatile oil in vapor, and some- 
times even azotic gas and ammonia, are evolved ; and 
after this there remains nothing but a brown or black 
residuum, known by the name of mould. Though all the 
circumstances of putrefaction are not yet described, or 
even known, we have discovered that they are confined 
to the conversion of complex substances into substances 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 261 

less compound; that Nature restores to new combina- 
tions the materials which she had but lent, as it were, 
to vegetables and animals ; and that she thus accom- 
plishes the perpetual circle of compositions and decom- 
positions, which attests her power and demonstrates her 
fecundity, while it announces equal grandeur and sim- 
plicity in the course of her operations." 

Thus, by a process through which man has made the 
fruits and grains of the earth to pass, has that been dis- 
tilled which has deepened the curse upon man more than 
any one thing in the world. " Nature never forms spir- 
ituous liquors ; she sots the grape upon the branch, but 
it is art which converts the juice into (alcoholic) wine." 
Chemical combinations, in her hands, are safe and health- 
ful. Man alone perverts, and wrests from the natural 
conditions the distillation of death. The proportion is 
seen in the declared fact that " there is more food in 
one bushel of barley than there is in twelve thousand 
gallons of the best beer." 

But, notwithstanding all that can be said of these 
things, — that there is no nutrition, nothing whatever 
that is desirable, in these liquid combinations, — men 
will go on imbibing them extravagantly; and as they 
will indulge, men will minister to their indulgence ; and 
if the most natural materials are not sufficient, they will 
manufacture others, and it is all right if the people are 
deceived and satisfied. A thoughtful person will very 
readily see there are not fruits and grains enough to 
meet the vast demand for spirits in our country, if they 
were all poured into the distilling granaries for that pur- 
pose. It is computed there are not less than three hun- 
dred firms engaged in the debasing traffic of poison- 
mixing, which they palm off for the choicest brands of 
the genuine article. From four of these manufactories, 
nearly two million gallons are sent out annually on their 



262 INTEMPERANCE, 

death-dealing mission, having this only recommendation 
— it enriches promptly, and kills swiftly. 

Professor Lee, of New York, says, — 

" A cheap Madeira is made here by extracting the oils 
from common whiske}^, and by passing it through car- 
bon. There are immense establishments in this city 
where the whiskey is thus turned into wine. In some 
of those devoted to this branch of business, the whiskey 
is rolled in in the evening, but the wine goes out in the 
broad daylight, ready to defy the closest inspection. A 
grocer, after he had abandoned the nefarious traffic, as- 
sured me that he had often purchased whiskey one day 
of a country merchant, and before he had left town the 
same whiskey was sent back to him turned into wine, at 
a profit of from four hundred to five hundred per 
cent." 

It becomes a matter of interest, to those who are thus 
imposed upon, to know the extent of the imposition, and 
its peculiar characteristics — to know something of the 
ingredients of that with which they grace their tables 
and treat their friends. What, then, are the materials 
so widely used in the adulteration of liquors? With 
Dr. Story as authority, we say, — 

" There is one set of ingredients used to adulterate 
the alcohol itself, another set used to give it the color, 
and others to give age and bead, and all to deceive. If 
you wanted," he continues, "to convert one gallon of 
new corn whiskey into four gallons of old peach brandy, 
you would use one set of ingredients ; into old Jamaica 
rum, another set ; into best Holland gin, another set ; 
and if you wanted to convert it into ten gallons of old 
Port wine, you would use still another set of ingredients, 
though the one used in the place of alcohol might be the 
same in all casgs. The coloring and flavoring would be 
different, though the intoxicating ingredient would be 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 263 

the same. Among the things used, strychnine is one of 
the most prominent. It is said that one drug store in 
London sold more of this article to one liquor manufac- 
turing establishment last year than was required by all 
the medical men in their profession. It is so very strong 
that it takes but little, added to a bushel of corn, to 
make an extra gallon of whiskey, and therefore it is ex- 
tensively used. Three cents' worth of this commodity, 
with a gallon of water, adds to the distiller's fortune 
with great rapidity. In 1857, the legislature of Ohio 
passed a law forbidding the use of this and other poisons, 
under a penalty of imprisonment in the penitentiary, at 
hard labor, not more than Hye or less than one year ; 
but men are shrewd in their attempts to evade the law, 
and the work went on secretly, as it had done before. 
The love of gain is stronger than all other considera- 
tions, and therefore the conclusion of men is, We will 
try it a little longer and see." 

Stramonium is another popular poison. It is extracted 
from a poisonous weed, sometimes called jimson-weed, 
and is very common in country places, and, on account 
of its cheapness, is extensively used by those who manu- 
facture and retail what they call spirits. Such a one 
buys whiskey, one fourth of which is already composed 
of strychnine, and proceeds to form a new composition 
by adding this latter ingredient ; but, as this is likely to 
create unpleasant sensations in the stomach, he adds a 
little opium to counteract the effect, and a little potash 
to modify the taste and smell, all of which can be done 
at the cost of a few cents. It is said, " Two fishermen, 
in a little town on the Ohio River, bought a pint of 
whiskey, and went up the river to fish. That afternoon 
they were both found, on the bank of the river, dead. 
The bottle was empty. When the retailer heard they 
were dead, he immediately emptied that keg of whiskey 



264 INTEMPEKANCE, 

into the ditch. As the proof was destroyed, of course 
he was not found guilty. In all probability he, through 
mistake, put more stramonium into the strychnine whis- 
key than he intended, or perhaps forgot to add the 
requisite amount of water. The fishermen are dead, 
and who is to blame ? " After having passed through 
these two processes, a third retailer takes it, and by the 
addition of another powerful poison — belladonna — he 
increases the quantity of liquid that is to enrich him by 
a large percentage, and injure his customers correspond- 
ingly. 

Every one knows of the deadly nightshade, and how 
it grows in great profusion in shady places, around the 
corners of fences, and by the side of walls, with berries 
of purplish hue and sweetish taste, and children are 
warned against touching it in any way, as leaf, stem, 
berries, root, and all are full of poison. It is this same 
thing that enters into the retailer's compound. "About 
two cents' worth will make a gallon of liquor, which 
sells in the market, at wholesale, for a dollar and a 
half." One gallon of whiskey, by the time it has passed 
through this third stage, becomes four times as much, 
yielding a retail profit of six or seven dollars to the gal- 
lon, which of course is a brilliant temptation. 

Dr. Cox, a distinguished chemist in Ohio, was directed 
by the legislature of that state to analyze and examine 
the liquors of their market. For two years and more, 
he gave his attention to the matter ; but opposing influ- 
ences were made to bear so strongly that his report was 
never made public. But many facts have come to light 
through his personal statements. As the result of his 
inspections, he declares that " over ninety per cent." of 
all that he examined — and his examinations were quite 
extensive — "were adulterated with the most pernicious 
and poisonous ingredients. I called at a grocery store 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 265 

one day," he says, " where liquor was being sold. A 
couple of Irishmen came in while I was there, and called 
for some whiskey. The first one drank, and the moment 
he drank the tears flowed freely, while he, at the same 
time, caught his breath, like one suffocating or stran- 
gling. When he could speak, he said to his companion, 
4 Och, Michael, by the powers, but this is warming to 
the stomach, sure ! ' Michael drank, and went through 
like contortions, with the remark, ' Troth, an' wouldn't 
it be foin on a cowld frosty mornin', Timothy? ' After 
they had drank, I asked the proprietor to pour me out a 
little in a tumbler. I went to my office, got my instru- 
ments, and examined it. I found it seventeen per cent, 
alcoholic spirits, when it should have been fifty ; and 
the difference in percentage was made up by sulphuric 
acid, red pepper, pellitory, caustic potash, brucine, and 
one of the salts of nux vomica. One pint of such liquor, 
at one time, would kill the strongest man. I had the 
manufacturer indicted ; but by such villany he had be- 
come wealthy, and I never have, owing to some defect in 
the law, been able to bring that case to a final issue." 

Cocculus is another thing that is used, more especially 
in beer, as a substitute for malt or hops. It is an East 
Indian plant, and in its native country the people use it 
as a stupefying potion, throwing it into the water when 
they would catch fish, so as to make them their easy 
prey. When given to dogs, it has been known to pro- 
duce convulsions and death, in the quantity of five or 
ten grains. It is used extensively in Europe and Amer- 
ica, although at the former place it is forbidden by law, 
under heavy penalties. A kind of tobacco, known as 
" dog-leg," is also used in large quantities. This is very 
cheap, and consequently it is used very freely. Its ten- 
dency is to produce nausea, and hence this condition is 
neutralized by adding a little opium or stramonium. 



266 INTEMPERANCE, 

During the war, one of our regiments took possession 
of a whiskey saloon. Several of the soldiers became 
drunk over one cask ; and when it was drained, one of 
their number smashed the head of it, and found about 
fifteen or twenty pounds of this kind of tobacco, well 
soaked, that looked as if it might have been there a 
twelvemonth or more. These two last ingredients are 
more extensively used in the adulteration of colored 
liquors. In other cases, it is subject to chemical decom- 
position, so as to extract the coloring matter, the same 
as strychnine. 

There recently appeared in the Boston Journal the 
following account of the quality of the liquors seized 
and confiscated, as offered for sale in violation of law : — 

" Since June, 1872, whenever the strong arm of the 
law has descended upon the stocks of dealers in liquors 
in this commonwealth, the captured material has been 
first carried to the nearest storehouse of the state police, 
where it has remained for several weeks, until it is either 
returned to the owners or confiscated by order of the 
courts. If confiscated, it is then delivered to the state 
commissioner, who has all the liquors from a great many 
seizures assembled together for examination and analy- 
sis, in Boston, preparatory to disposing of them. These 
collections of trash are quite remarkable, representing, 
as they do, the alcoholic beverages of all kinds, taken 
just as they are sold in every part of the state. Pack- 
ages of almost every conceivable kind may be seen 
among them, as the seizures include hogsheads, barrels, 
kegs, demijohns, jugs, bottles, decanters, tin cans, tubs, 
measures and pails of wood and metal, kitchen utensils, 
pitchers, crockery vessels, &c, in great numbers. And 
the marks on these packages are also various and ingen- 
ious. Whiskey is sometimes labelled as " Extract of 
Lemon," "Vanilla Syrup," or "Tincture of Energy," 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 267 

and it may be designated by a single letter or number. 
Occasionally, some proprietor comes out boldly, and 
marks a favorite drink with such refreshing names as 
" Green Mountain Tonic," or " Sandy's very best." 

The liquors themselves are generally very bad. They 
are most commonly extended with " French spirit," wa- 
ter, sweetening and coloring matters ; but a very consider- 
able proportion of them is made from spirits flavored with 
dangerous "oils" and extracts, in imitation of brandy 
and other liquors. Many curious cases might be cited 
in confirmation of this ; but the occasional seizures, by 
the officers, of the pure " oils " in two-quart jugs, with 
written and printed directions for making them into 
brandy, whiskey, gin, and so forth^er of the mixtures in 
process of manufacture, are certainly an unmistakable in- 
dication of the increasing activity in this miserable 
business of making liquors for immediate use. The fol- 
lowing extracts from a circular recently taken, with some 
of the " oils," from a small dealer in one of the neigh- 
boring towns, are copied by way of illustration. This 
circular is headed "Hints to Liquor Dealers;" and, 
among other items, we find that " full instructions ac- 
company each package;" so you can make the liquors 
in a few minutes. 

French brandy oil, sufficient to make forty gal- 
lons brandy, $5 00 

Otard brandy oil, very fine, sufficient to make 

twenty gallons brandy, 5 00 

Bourbon whiskey oil, sufficient to make forty gal- 
lons Bourbon whiskey, 5 00 

Holland gin oil, sufficient to make forty gallons 

Holland gin, 5 00 

Goods sent, securely packed, free from observation. 

A sample case, containing three oils of above list, 
a copy of " Secrets Liquor Trade and Bar Tend- 
er's Guide," sent for . . .' 12 00 



268 INTEMPERANCE, 

Another good illustration is found in a small card 
of directions, printed in French. This is entirely a 
different thing from the circular quoted above, and it is 
headed " Extract Fine Liqueur de Paris, manufactured 

par la Societe Philanthropique Francaise, W , Mass." 

Then follow directions for making an excellent family 
beverage, that will not cost more than one dollar per 
gallon, and which surpasses any other liquor, costing at 
least four dollars a gallon, in purity and flavor. Some of 
the confiscated liquors are not very skilfully compounded, 
and the common spices of the kitchen, with raisins, fruits, 
onions, and tobacco, are found in them. Occasionally, a 
whole barrel of unmixed " French spirit " (alcohol and 
water, without flavor), is seized from some retail dealer, 
who never has occasion to sell anything of this kind un- 
favored. Pure brandies and wines are very seldom 
seized, and they are generally so much changed that the 
original wholesale dealers would not recognize them. 

It is asserted that the greatest profit arises from the 
adulteration of wine, and that probably the greatest 
amount of injury is done in this connection. " Give me 
six hours' notice of what wines you like," said a French 
merchant, "and you shall have it out of those two bar- 
rels." " To brighten, color, clear, and make astringent 
wines, alum, Brazil wood, gypsum, oak sawdust, husks 
of filbert, and lead are employed ; and for the purpose of 
communicating particular flavor to insipid wines, bitter 
almond, cherry, laurel water. In the Isle of Sheppy, 
many persons are emplo}^ed in picking up coj>peras stones 
from the sea-beach, which, being taken to a manufactory, 
copperas is extracted, and then shipped to Oporto, to be 
sold to the wine-dresser and wine merchant, and by them 
is mixed with the port wine to give it a peculiar astrin- 
gent quality. One writer, who knew whereof he af- 
firmed,, said, " We know very well that the Spaniard 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 269 

would not touch the wine he manufactures for us, and 
the Portuguese would spit out our port like so much 
poison." Dr. Cox, the chemist already quoted, makes 
this statement as more or less true of all the port wine 
that came under his analytical observation during the 
special period his attention was given to the subject : 
" As a basis, either water, cider, vinegar, or a mixture 
of water and sulphuric acid, with the juice of elder- 
berries, privet berries, beet-root juice, and logwood, with 
alum, technically called sulphate of alumina, and potassa, 
sugar to cover the pernicious mixture, and sometimes I 
found one or two per cent, of Jamaica rum, or neutral 
spirits, added." 

Of sherry, madeira, muscadel, &c, he says they are 
all, or at least all that he has inspected, either mixed, or 
have, as a basis, water, cider, wort made of pale malt, of 
a mixture of sulphuric acid and water to the acidity of 
weak vinegar, with brown sugar, honey, orris-root, and 
neutral spirits to give it alcoholic percentage ; and this, 
he adds, was the character of two samples of wine — port 
and sherry — that he inspected, which were sent from a 
store, the proprietors of which are honorable and high- 
minded gentlemen, who had paid a high price for their 
liquors, got them out of a custom-house in an Eastern 
city, with an assurance that they were genuine and im- 
ported, and yet there was not one drop or symptom of 
wine in either of them, — the one having its warming, 
stimulating influence from sulphuric acid, and one per 
cent. Jamaica rum ; and the sherry having six per cent, 
alcoholic spirits imparted to it by neutral spirits, with 
sulphuric acid, bitter almonds, brown sugar, arid honey. 
These mixtures are all flavored with various oils, mixed 
to suit the flavors of the different wines. One of these is 
a poison so intense in its nature, that one fourth of a 
drop has been known to kill a rabbit, and one drop a dog. 



270 INTEMPERANCE, 

A New York physician bought a bottle of what was 
called genuine champagne, of the importers, and on sub- 
jecting it to chemical tests, it was found to contain a 
quarter of an ounce of sugar of lead. On the arrival of 
a cargo of wines in New York, it is at once purchased, 
and perhaps poured into vats, where these various sub- 
stances' are mingled with it, and it is again sent forth 
not only doubled and quadrupled in quantity, but its 
whole character completely changed. Europe and our 
own country are alike engaged in the same baneful traf- 
fic. The Edinburgh Medical Journal gives the following 
incident : " The family of a baronet in Roxburgshire, 
together with several visitors, were taken seriously ill 
during dinner, or soon after it. The symptoms in all 
were sickness, vomiting, and diarrhoea. In the course of 
the night all were affected with a sense of heat in the 
stomach, throat, and mouth ; and in the morning the lips 
became incrusted, and the skin cracked and peeled off. 
On analyzing some of the matter thrown off, the two 
hundred and fiftieth part of a grain of arsenic was dis- 
covered, and in the remains of a bottle of champagne 
two ounces of wine gave one grain and a quarter of sul- 
phate of arsenic." It is evident that these things can- 
not be imbibed with safety. They are poisons, and act 
as such upon the human system. 

Passing from wine to the stronger liquids, we find the 
" Vintner's Guide " affording the following receipt for 
improving the flavors of brandy : "A quarter of an ounce 
of English saffron, and half an ounce of mace, steeped in 
a pint of brandy for ten days, shaking once or twice 
a day ; then strain it through linen cloth, and add one 
ounce of terra japonica, finely pounded, and three ounces 
of spirits of nitre ; put it into ten gallons of brandy, add- 
ing, at the same time, ten pounds of prunes, bruised." 
Then, to give it all the qualities of the old, that it may 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 271 

have the popular recommendation of age, " add thirty 
drops of aqua ammonia to one gallon of new brandy, 
shaking it well, that it may combine with the acid, on 
which the taste and other qualities of the new liquor de- 
pend.'' With reference to brandy, Dr. Cox says, "I 
have inspected brands, of various kinds and qualities, 
fresh from the custom-house, with the inspector's certifi- 
cate, which accompanied them, and was assured that 
they were freshly imported, and yet the chemical tests 
gave me corn whiskey, with abundance of fusel oil, or 
the oil of corn, as a basis, with sulphuric acid, nitric 
ether, prussic acid, copper, chloroform, quinia, pepper, 
tannin or tannic acid, with sometimes a very small per- 
centage of brandy, and frequently not a drop." 

A gentleman of veracity, in Cincinnati, too, a druggist, 
that he might have a pure liquor as a medical article, and 
that kind of purity that he could recommend to his cus- 
tomers, went to New York and purchased two half pipes 
of splendid Leignette brandy — one pale, the other dark. 
When passing, one day, he called me in to see his beau- 
tiful pure brandy, just from New York. I stopped, 
looked at it, smelled it ; but, before tasting it, happening 
to have some blue litmus paper in my pocket, I intro- 
duced a small piece ; it came out as red as scarlet. I 
then called for a polished spatula, put it into a tumbler 
containing, perhaps, half a gill, and waited on it, perhaps, 
fifteen minutes, at the expiration of which the liquor was 
black as ink. The spatula corroded, and when dried, a 
thick coating of rust, which, when wiped off, left a cop- 
per coat almost as thick as if it had been plated. I 
charged him on the spot, under the penalty of the law, 
not to sell a drop of it ; took samples of it to my office, 
and the following is the result of my analysis: First 
sample — dark, 55 per cent, alcoholic spirits by volume, 
and 41 per cent, by weight ; specific gravity, 0.945. The 



272 INTEMPERANCE, 

tests indicate sulphuric acid, nitric acid, nitric ether, prus- 
sic acid, quinia, pepper, and an abundance of fusel oil, 
base common whiskey — not a drop of brandy. Second 
sample — pale, 54 per cent, alcoholic spirits by volume, 
40 per cent, by weight ; specific gravity, 0.955. 

They were purchased on four months' time. The 
purchaser immediately notified the New York merchant 
of the character and quality of the goods, and directed 
him to "send for them ; but instead of doing that, he 
waited until the notes became due, and brought the suit 
into the Court of Common Pleas at Cincinnati. The 
(demist analyzed the liquors in the presence of the 
court and jury, showed them satisfactorily that they were 
the pernicious, poisonous, and villanous liquors that he 
had represented them to be, and the defendant gained 
his case triumphantly, and the merchant vanished before 
a state warrant could be got out, otherwise he would 
have had ample time to learn an honest trade in one of 
the institutions of Ohio. 

It may be that rum is not quite so extensively adul- 
terated as some of the other spirits. It is supposed to 
be originally a simple distillation of the sugar-cane ; but 
a very inferior article is often purchased, and by the ad- 
dition of ale, " porter, shrub, extract of orris-root, cherry, 
laurel-water, extract of grains of paradise or capsicum," 
it is made to put on the airs of fine old Jamaica, and 
sold correspondingly. 

Gin is more fearfully complicated. In this may be 
found " oil of vitriol, oil of cassia, oil of turpentine, oil of 
caraway, oil of juniper, oil of almond, sulphuric ether, ex- 
tract of capsicum, extract of grains of paradise, extract of 
orris-root, extract of angelica-root, water, sugar," to say 
nothing of the introduction of le'ad, that often finds its way 
in with the host of other things. The poisoning process 
goes on through all the malt liquors, with perhaps a more 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 273 

complicated list of wretched ingredients. No less than 
twenty-eight or thirty different articles are specified that 
go to make up beer, and some of them are the rankest 
poisons, and mixed in a way that shows such an accumu- 
lation of filth as would shock the man of lowest taste, 
•could he see it, much more the fastidious. 

It is related that some dissipated men and women were 
drinking ale and porter in a dram shop, in Hull, Eng- 
land, not long ago. " The landlord had occasion to 
leave the shop, when one of the women, seeing on the 
counter a pitcher full of what she supposed to be porter, 
drank a good draught, replacing the pitcher. In a very 
short time she was seized with nausea and griping pains, 
and fell down on the floor in a state of hopeless stupor 
and intoxication. In this state she was conveyed to the 
hospital, when, the contents of the stomach being evacu- 
ated, she was rescued from being poisoned, although it 
was several days before she was able to be removed. 
The matter ejected was found to be a strong solution of 
cocculus indicus. The man acknowledged that the drug 
had been used by him to bring up his ales to a strength 
to suit his customers. This was a noted house for genuine 
ales and bitter beer." 

It is not necessary to multiply these instances. Enough 
has been said to show any one that it is scarcely pos- 
sible to indulge in any of the alcoholic drinks of the 
present day without taking into his system the rankest 
poisons the world can furnish. It is sufficient to make 
the most inveterate drunkard pause, and consider what 
he is doing. It certainly should make the moderate 
drinker stop, and ask himself the question, if he can de- 
liberately consent to poison the fountain of his being in 
this way. Surely, he who - begins just to sip a little, or 
take an occasional glass for the sake of a jolly time with 
his friends, should ponder long and well if he can afford 
to do it. 17 



274 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER XVII. 

License and Prohibition. 

GOOD AND EVIL AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER. — THE TWO LEADING PRIN- 
CIPLES. — FOR WHAT DO WE GRANT LICENSE. — MINER BEFORE THE 
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. — A HUNDRED DIFFERENT LAWS. — 
DECLARATION OF DR. HUMPHREY. — CONSTABLE'S REPORT. — STATE 

BOARD OF CHARITIES. — WHAT ALBERT BARNES SATS. PROHIBITION 

THE ONLY THING. — PROTECTIVE POWER. — ENGLAND'S POSITION. — 
NEAL DOW FATHER OF PROHIBITION. — TESTIMONY AS TO RESULTS. — 
CALL TO ACTION. 

The powers of good and evil in the world are always 
antagonistic. Those who are arrayed upon the one 
side are always in opposition to those on the other. 
They who would see the cause of right prosper, and man- 
kind take their true position in the scale of being, are 
always seeking by every condition of law and order to 
bring it about. The less careful ones are more intent 
upon procuring measures that shall sanction self-indul- 
gence, and throw no restraint upon their liberty, which 
they declare to be their special gift from Heaven to do 
with as they please. In this manner are arrayed the 
friends and the enemies of temperance. The former are 
bringing all their influence to bear upon the suppression 
of that which all history and experience proves to be the 
greatest evil that can possibly exist in any land. They 
labor themselves, and multiply agencies of every descrip- 
tion and character, to hasten a consummation they so 
devoutly wish would come. They look abroad upon the 
wide-spread misery and woe, and every glance confirms 
them in their determination to wage war upon that which 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 275 

inflicts so much of sorrow upon the human race. They 
plead — they petition the authorities of state and nation 
to send forth their commanding tones, and put the final 
touch to what they have begun. On the contrary, the 
enemies of the cause are incessantly at work to defeat 
the whole. The millennium has not yet come, and evil 
is strong in the land, and there are times when appar- 
ently it is in the ascendency, and wicked men exult that 
their schemes override all others. The true man says, 
Banish the infernal drink that is devastating society, and 
drowning myriads as if with an overflowing flood ; shut 
up the places that are as so many schools of vice, and 
let those who sustain them be evermore forbidden by the 
stern mandate of law, and those who work at the foun- 
tain be made to stay their unrighteous proceedings by a 
similar omnipotent decree. The other class say, Away 
with your sanctimonious folly, and let us have a little 
cheer for this humdrum life ; let us eat, drink, and be 
merry, and once in a while forget the cares and sorrows 
of our pathway ; and so it is acting and counteracting 
all the while, and the time and manner of its ending is 
yet an unsolved problem. The two great leading prin- 
ciples of action with the friends and foes of temperance 
are license and prohibition. The cursory glance we give 
these will not admit of minute and specific details of 
their origin and working, but only some of the advan- 
tages and objections urged, and their general character. 
There are thousands engaged in the miserable traffic, 
who nevertheless pronounce the business in itself an un- 
mitigated evil. It is profitable, and therefore they quiet 
their consciences by saying, that as long as others are 
permitted to do it freely, they might just as well. The 
consequences will be no worse to individuals or society 
for our selling, for it will be had, and it might just as 
well be had of us as any one. These and those who 



276 INTEMPERANCE, 

patronize them say, It is an evil, we know, but let it be 
regulated and shielded by a license law. They like to 
sit under the shadow of some such institution, for it 
has a wonderfully cooling effect upon their overheated 
and panting natures. They can sit down and deal out 
the contents of the whiskey keg or the beer barrel with 
the utmost complacency, for the state has given them 
authority to do it, and not every one has been thought 
worthy of the signal honor ; for this is one of the pleas 
of the license men, that it makes it respectable — as if 
anything could write respectability upon that which has 
evident woe in it from the very beginning to the end 
thereof. At least, it so far comforts its votaries, that it 
makes them feel they are doing a legitimate and honor- 
able work. There may be restraints and regulations to 
keep them in check ; but what care they for these, while 
the law upholds them in their main object. They are 
the ones singled out from among the people, as being 
peculiarly fitted to engage in that occupation. So far 
from considering it a mark of honor and respect to be 
thus delegated, it is a wonder that such a one does not 
stop short in his career, and shudder at his prospect. 
Let him ask himself the question, For what am I granted 
license ? and then listen to the reply : — 

" We grant license the taxes twofold to increase, 
To destroy or defame the whole neighborhood's peace ; 
To fan up the flame in the inebriate's breast; 
To deprive him of reason, and rob him of rest ; 
To wound and degrade him on honor's bright roll ; 
To ruin and kill him, both body and soul ; 
To freeze and to starve his affectionate wife ; 
To afflict her, and ruin her whole prospect in life ; 
To beggar his children, and leave them forlorn ; 
To receive from the cold world but pity or scorn ; 
To affect courts of justice, nnd rule their decision ; 
To degrade, and pollute, and keep them in derision ; 
To rule or to ruin the affairs of the city ; 
To pour rum broadcast without mercy or pity ; 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 277 

To bribe legislators ; to ruin the state ; 

To increase state prisoners, and leave them to fate ; 

To soil the legislative department of the nation ; 

To befoul and pervert each condition or station ; 

To fasten on government a stain and a blot ; 

To give credence to rumor — Our ruler's a sot ; 

To ruin church members, in life and in death, 

To deprive them of reason, religion, and breath; 

To leave them to the fates in eternity given, 

To the law — No drunkard shall enter God's heaven." 



Is it an honor to be commissioned to do all this ? Can 
conscience take a " license," and go deliberately forward 
in this work ? It is said, it regulates an evil. But why 
not come up to the full measure of the standard of right, 
and seek to banish that which is acknowledged an evil, 
instead of retaining it, and trying to curb and prune it, 
to make it more respectable and tolerable. Plainly, if it 
is licensed, an evil is fostered, and if one evil, then a host 
of kindred evils also might claim protection ; and where 
is there a limit to this high carnival of iniquity ? There 
is no fairness in allowing a few men to do all this, mighty 
work. 

Rather spread it, lest the terrible reward be as a 
crushing millstone grinding the few to powder. In an 
argument before the Massachusetts legislature in 1867, 
on this question, by A. A. Miner, he says, " The busi- 
ness itself is not one that will invite men of high char- 
acter to enter into it. Whatever your course may be 
on this subject, the liquor sellers of Massachusetts, so 
long as you cherish the character which the state now 
enjoys, will be men of moderate moral attainments. 
Why, gentlemen, though an eminent representative of 
the traffic, standing here the other day, admitted that he 
wanted a law to make his business respectable, I allege 
that the thing is impossible. Massachusetts cannot en- 
act a law that will make the selling of liquors, as bever- 
ages, respectable. If the angel Gabriel should come 



278 INTEMPERANCE, 

down to earth, and sell liquors as beverages, he would 
not lift the business up to heaven, but the business 
would drag the angel down to hell. If I were to define 
a license law, stringent or otherwise, I should say it was 
a legal means of making drunkards." 

To those who say, I have a license, and therefore I 
can and will sell, the Rev. John Pierpont replies, in a 
most sarcastic manner, " You have a license — and that 
is your plea ; I adjure you to keep it ; lock it among your 
choicest jewels ; guard it as the apple of your eye ; and 
when you die, and are laid in your coffin, be sure that 
the precious document is placed between your cold and 
clammy fingers, so that when you are called upon to con- 
front your victims before God, you may be ready to file 
in your plea of justification, and boldly to lay down your 
license on the bar of the Judge. Yes, my friend, keep 
it ; you will then want your license signed by the county 
commissioners, and indorsed by the selectmen." 

The very conditions of the license law show its 
weakness. One of these forbids selling to a man already 
intoxicated. A man may drink until he ceases to be 
himself, and then he has only to refrain until he reaches 
a certain commendable stage of soberness, before he can 
begin and act the same over again. Is that making the 
probability of his becoming a drunkard any the less ? 
" A minor may not drink without the consent of his 
father." Has not a father who would give such consent 
forfeited all right to dictate to a child what he shall or 
shall not do ? What power can give him a moral right 
to allow that he knows will be his certain destruction ? 
" It must not be sold to intemperate men, when forbid- 
den by their wives." Did the law-makers stop to think, 
how much better it would be for those wives if they had 
gone farther back, and laid their restrictions where they 
belonged, instead of leaving them to bear the torrents 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 279 

of abuse which such action would pour upon them ? " It 
shall not be sold to be drank upon the premises." This 
protects the rum seller, and shields him from all the sad 
consequences of his doings, and carries them all into the 
sanctuary of home, to torture and afflict innocent fam- 
ilies that are ever mourning the fruits of license. Some 
who found it hard to give up their pet institution, 
thought they were bringing things up to a higher plane 
when they suggested that large sums be demanded for 
license, so that the rich only would come into the trade, 
and all the " low groggeries " be closed ; as if the matter 
was to be greatly dignified by letting wealth and stand- 
ing take the best people and make them respectable 
drunkards. O the folly of men when their own wishes 
and interests are at stake ! 

" The life of a nation is too short," says one, " for the 
art of suppressing the liquor traffic by license. For over 
two hundred years our fathers tried to perfect a ' strin- 
gent license law,' and died without the sight. Their 
despair may well be crowned when they behold the 
bungling workmanship of the wise men of to-day." 
During all these years, more than a hundred different 
laws were passed with reference to licensing and regu- 
lating this branch of trade ; and says this same person, 
" An attentive perusal of them would constitute a com- 
plete demonstration of the inherent weakness of all such 
legislation." Dr. Humphrey, of Amherst College, said, 
in 1833, — 

" It is plain to me, as the sun in a clear summer sky, 
that the license laws of our country constitute one of 
the main pillars on which the stupendous fabric of in- 
temperance now rests." In the same year Frelinghuysen 
declared, " If men will engage in this destructive traffic, 
— if they will stoop to degrade their reason, and reap the 
wages of iniquity, — let them no longer have the law-book 



280 INTEMPEBANCE, 

as a pillow, nor quiet conscience by the opiate of a court 
license." 

For some years previous to 1865, a prohibitory law 
had been in force in Massachusetts; but at this date there 
was a determined effort among its enemies to abolish it 
in favor of the license system. The Secretary of the 
Temperance Alliance for that year says, "Strange as 
it may appear,' a minister of the gospel volunteered to 
carry a license law through the legislature, thus render- 
ing the services of rum sellers themselves unnecessary, 
so far as this favorite law of theirs is concerned. With a 
champion from the church and pulpit, whose sacerdotal 
robes would contribute to the dignity of his singular 
mission, the liquor dealers of Massachusetts could ask 
no more." The effort was a long and strong one, but it 
failed, at the time; but owing to certain conditions of 
party policy, it triumphed, and in November, 1867, the 
law was declared, not to take effect until the spring of 
the following year, however. A few months' experience 
under the new administration was convincing proof to 
all that a great mistake had been made ; that License 
was miserable in principle, and a failure in action. The 
practical fact that it was of regulative tendency was no- 
where apparent. The commitments to prison for the 
same length of time were more than doubled. " It may 
well be doubted," says one, " whether intemperance 
would have increased with more rapid strides, if no 
legislative regulation of the sale of intoxicating liquors 
had ever been made." The law opened and legalized 
about twenty-five hundred open bars in the various cities 
and towns, besides over a thousand other places where 
it was supposed they would not sell by the glass. In 
January, 1869, the constable of the commonwealth re- 
ported to the legislature thus : " The rapid increase of 
crime and violence during the past year over former 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 281 

years is without precedent in the history of criminal 
experience. The state prison and houses of correction 
never held within their limits such numbers as at the 
present time ; while the wheels of justice are almost 
clogged with the trial of constantly accumulating crim- 
inal business, and the district attorneys of Suffolk find 
it almost impossible to clear their criminal docket from 
month to month, notwithstanding the courts in this 
county are in almost perpetual session. Is it unfair to 
suggest that the open bar and inviting sale of intoxicat- 
ing liquors, licensed and unlicensed, in every street, is, 
to a considerable extent, chargeable and responsible for 
this state of things ? " The Board of State Charities for 
the same period says, also, — 

" While in our cities there is an undeniable increase 
in intoxication, and consequent crime, the change is more 
noticeable in the smaller towns, and the effect in general 
is so palpable that public opinion seems already frowning 
upon the unseemly order of things, and demanding a re- 
turn to the safer regime of prohibition, with reasonable 
penalties, and a faithful attempt to execute the law. 
Poverty and vice are what the poor man buj^s with his 
poisoned liquor ; sickness, beastliness, laziness, and pollu- 
tion are what the state gives in exchange for the license 
money which the dram seller filches from the lean purse 
of the day-laborer and the half-grown lad, and hands 
over, sullied with shame, ' to the high-salaried official 
who receives it. But the treasury reaps little from this 
revolting tribute ; for along with the licensed shops and 
bars twice as many that are unlicensed ply their trade, 
and debauch the poor without enriching anybody but 
the dram seller. These are the practical results of a 
license system in Massachusetts. The increase of intem- 
perance, which the reaction of last year against the strict- 
ness of prohibition has greatly promoted, interferes at 



282 INTEMPERANCE, 

once with our industrial interests, fosters pauperism and 
disease, and swells the list of criminals. That intemper- 
ance has increased will appear from the prison statistics, 
soon to be submitted ; that crime and vice have also in- 
creased, will be shown by the same impartial test, as 
well as confirmed by the observation of all who have 
attended to that subject, and noticed what has been 
going on in the past year. If it is desired to secure in 
the best manner the repression of crime and pauperism, 
the increase of production, the decrease of taxation, and 
a general prosperity of the community, so far as this 
question of intemperance is concerned, it is clearly best 
that Massachusetts should return to the policy which 
prohibits the sale of intoxicating drinks, except for me- 
chanical or medical purposes." Some idea of the traffic 
may be obtained from the fact that the direct rum tax 
for 1868 was three million dollars. 

" An evil always becomes worse by being sustained 
by the laws of the land," says Albert Barnes. " It is 
much to have the sanction of law, and the moral force 
of law, in favor of any course of human conduct. In the 
estimation of many persons, to make a thing legal is to 
make it morally right; and an employment which is 
legal is pursued by them with few rebukes of conscience, 
and with little disturbance from any reference to a higher 
than human authority. Moreover, this fact does much 
to deter others from opposing the evil, and from endeav- 
oring to turn the public indignation against it. It is an 
unwelcome thing for a good man ever to set himself 
against the laws of the land, and to denounce that as 
ivrong which they affirm to be right. It is a virtue to be 
law-loving and law-abiding ; and it is a principle which 
every good citizen cherishes, to do what he can to give 
additional force to the authority of law, and not to lend 
the sanction of his name to that which would weaken its 
moral power. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 283 

" Hence such men are often slow and reluctant in at- 
tacking that which is an undoubted evil, for the attack 
seems to be made upon the legal fabric as such, and to 
do just so much to weaken the authority of law. The 
good are deterred from opposing it, for they do not wish 
to seem to be arrayed against the laws. The bad are 
confirmed in their course, for they feel that they are sus- 
tained by the laws of the land ; and for them that is 
enough. They can claim, too, some popular sympathy 
when they are denounced for doing that which is legal. 
They can pursue their course in spite of all that others 
can do. Thus the evil grows in strength by all the bold- 
ness given to them by the sanction of the laws, and by 
all the reluctance of the friends of reform to denounce 
that as wrong which the law affirms to be right." The 
same principle holds true in the attempt to regulate it, 
and therefore there seems no alternative but to prohibit 
it. It may be said that prohibition will not accomplish 
the desired result ; that law itself cannot restrain the 
appetites and passions of men, and that somehow, in 
some way, they will find the means for their personal 
indulgence. Doubtless they will; but if a man is to take 
a journey, he cannot reach the end as quickly by going 
long distances round, climbing over hedges, and dodging 
various obstacles, as though he went straight forward in 
an unobstructed pathway. Neither can a man go to his 
own destruction as fast under prohibition as under li- 
cense. This has been fully demonstrated. The people 
of Massachusetts were glad to return to the former, after 
the reign of the latter for a twelvemonth. 

Of course there are always individual exceptions to 
every rule. There will always be those who will violate 
any law, however wise and necessary that law may be ; 
but this argues nothing against the wisdom, justness, 
and efficiency of the law. If it be found to be advan- 



284 INTEMPERANCE, 

tageous to the public good generally, that it ministers 
to the comfort, peace, and prosperity of people, it is suf- 
ficient to secure its maintenance. There are those who 
scoff at legal prohibition as an invasion of their just rights 
and liberties. They affirm they have been in the busi- 
ness when the protecting arm of the law was about them, 
and the people have no right to rise up and withdraw it, 
saying unto them, Thou shalt not ! But where would 
society be, if universal sufferance were given to all the 
desires and imaginations of men. It is bad enough with 
all the checks and restraints that can be brought to bear 
upon it ; but remove all these, and the inhabitants of 
earth would be ripe for another deluge. Manifestly, in- 
temperance is a great moral and social evil, and unless 
some effectual barrier is placed in its way, there will be 
no limit to its spread. What but coercion will answer ? 
Certainly men will never put it away of themselves. 
The rigid enforcement of a prohibitory law will doubt- 
less do 'more than anything else to stay the rushing tide. 
If this could be made to thunder in the ears of the man- 
ufacturer until he should close his doors and cease to 
convert into poison the good things of earth, there would 
be hope for the rest. 

But these men deny the right of society even to whis- 
per of such a thing. Have they not a right to choose their 
own business, and to conduct it in whatever form they 
please ? No ! not if it is plainly detrimental to the pub- 
lic good. " It is the main prerogative of a civil govern- 
ment to prohibit just such things as this. Protection is 
its end and business — the protection of the possessions, 
the rights, the industry, and the virtue of a community 
from the invasions of the lawless and the mischievous. 
Hence the main function of a government is prohibition. 
Its office is to supervise the complicated' and often clash- 
ing operations of self-love among the associated thou- 
sands of whom society is composed, and restrain its inju- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 285 

rious workings. We need a civil government, simply 
because in the social state we are exposed to injury from 
the evil-minded. Its end is protection; and its power 
to protect lies in this very power to prohibit whatever 
conflicts with social order and private rights. Turn, 
now, to our statute law, and you will find this the real 
meaning of each enactment. More or less obviously, 
each statute is a protective prohibition. It pre-supposes 
some lawful interest endangered, some laudable pursuit 
molested, some social or individual right invaded; and 
the statute is the arm of the social body stretched forth 
to protect the violated right by prohibiting the invasion." 
Strong drink has always been considered a great and 
sore evil. Those who sell it and those who drink it 
are unanimous in the one verdict when they speak out 
the honest convictions of their hearts. Because these con- 
victions have no weight in their practical life, it is pretty 
good reason there is needed some kind of enforcement 
from outside to operate as a compelling power. The pub- 
lic good far transcends private interest and convenience. 
The law is for the greatest good of the greatest number, 
and therefore it is for the individual to yield when his 
plans would subvert the broader foundations. Every- 
where the good are looking to this one principle as their 
only hope. One of England's philanthropists speaks thus 
at the present time : "As electors and citizens, we are 
always willing to aid any measure that really proposes to 
restrict the present ruinous system ; but it is not for us to 
take the initiative, seeing that this would be to compro- 
mise with the enemy, and to divert us from the great 
end before us, viz., 'The total prohibition of the liquor 
traffic' All amendment schemes we leave to others; 
our object is not to amend, but to annihilate. All that 
tends in this direction in amendment schemes we will 
accept as instalments only. Our ultimatum is the de- 
struction of the liquor traffic, root and branch" Nothing 



286 INTEMPERANCE, 

short of this should satisfy the American people. As 
long as they parley with the enemy it will remain within 
their borders, the same formidable, ever-threatening 
giant. They need to throw the stone straight into its 
forehead, if they would behold its prostrate form, with 
its bold, defiant air, forever laid low. If it could be 
banished from our land, it would be the greatest victory 
that was ever achieved for man upon the earth. There 
might then be proclaimed a "year of jubilee," and it 
would be an occasion at which the angels themselves 
might like to minister. It were idle to waste words 
upon the glory of such a time. Imagination paints it, 
and the conceptions of mind revel in all that is bright 
and fair ; but it is the heart especially that exults in the 
transcendent blessing, for it would be like bathing in a 
clear stream, when the foulest of waters have long been 
pouring over one. 

There are men who call everything & failure that does 
not suit their ideas ; so there are many who declaim 
loudly against the working of the prohibition principle. 
They see no great difference — men sell, and men drink, 
and where is the good ? The eyes of these men, and 
their ears too, need to be subjected to some kind of op- 
eration that shall enable them to discern a little more 
clearly of the signs of the times. Prohibition was born, 
cradled, nurtured, and has grown up in Maine, and Neal 
Dow, the father of the child, thinks it is anything but a 
failure. He looks upon it as about the fairest creation that 
was ever presented to mankind, and he makes no hesita- 
tion in saying, wherever he goes, that it corresponds 
more nearly with his ideal than anything he has ever 
known. Its practical influence is in every way desirable. 
In 1872 the governor of the state said, " In some places 
liquor is sold secretly in violation of the law, as many 
other offences are committed against the statutes, and the 
peace and good order of society ; but in large districts 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 287 

of the state the liquor traffic is nearly or quite unknown, 
where formerly it was carried on like any other trade." 
The Hon. W. P. Frye, member of Congress from the 
Lewiston district, and ex-attorney-general of the state, 
also says, " I can, and do, from my own personal obser- 
vation, unhesitatingly affirm that the consumption of 
intoxicating liquors in Maine is not to-day one fourth as 
great as it was twenty years ago ; that in the country 
portions of the state the sale and use have almost en- 
tirely ceased ; that the law itself, under a vigorous en- 
forcement of its provisions, has created a temperance 
sentiment which. is marvellous, and to which opposition 
is powerless. In my opinion, our remarkable temperance 
reform of to-day is the legitimate child of the law." Any 
amount of similar testimony might be adduced, were it 
necessary. Everywhere in the land, where it has been 
tested, it is with the same result. Certain localities may 
perhaps give it distinct phases and coloring, but there is 
one united voice in its favor among those who appre- 
ciate the good order of society, and are interested in the 
lifting up and advancement of the race. The figures 
which show the diminution of crime, the decrease of tax- 
ation, and all those things, are an eloquent appeal for its 
universal adoption. They stand an unanswerable argu- 
ment in its favor. Then — 

" Up for the conflict ! let your battle peal 
Ring in the air, as rings the clash of steel 
When, rank to rank, contending armies meet, 
Trampling the dead beneath their bloody feet. 
Up ! you are bidden to a nobler strife — 
Not to destroy, but rescue human life ; 
No added drop in misery's cup to press, 
But minister relief to wretchedness ; 
To give the long-lost father to his boy ; 
To cause the widow's heart to sing for joy ; 
Bid Plenty laugh where hungry Famine scowls, 
And pour the sunlight o'er the tempest's howls ; 
Bring to the soul that to despair is given, 
A new-found joy — a holy hope of heaven. 



288 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

. Legislative Action. 

TREE OF LIBERTY. — ANCIENT EMPIRES. — SUPPRESSION. — ORIGIN OF 
THE MAINE LAW. — MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATION. — CONNECTICUT 
AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. — NEW YORK. — SPEECH OF HENRY WARD 
BEECHER. — OPPOSITION AT TAMMANY HALL. — LOCAL OPTION. — 

CIVIL DAMAGE. — MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. THE PLEADER'S WORDS. 

— THE GREAT TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 

Americans have long boasted of their overshadow- 
ing tree of liberty, and have pointed with pride to the 
unexampled growth and prosperity of the people em- 
braced within its encircling branches. It is fair and 
goodly ; but the goodliest thing will not retain its good- 
ness without care ; it will not preserve its vigor and 
freshness without it is watched, cherished, and culti- 
vated. There is no question but that intemperance is a 
worm at the root of this tree, threatening its vitality, 
and, through this, its very existence. Say not it is too 
firmly established, that it has defied the storms of too 
many winters, and braved the blasts of too many tem- 
pests, to be easily uprooted. We grant that it is strong ; 
but we know, too, that the influences at work are 
mighty also, and that, unless they are stayed, there is 
danger. The great empires of antiquity rose to splendid 
heights, and they fell. Why ? Because the destructive 
agencies within themselves were allowed to have full 
sway. It may be we have a broader basis of intelli- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 289 

gence, and that our free institutions are a sort of safety- 
valve for the nation ; but how long would these remain 
unimpaired, if the intemperate habits of the people were 
permitted to go on unchecked and unrestrained ? The 
safety of our nation actually demands consideration on 
this subject, and not only this, there is imperative need 
for prompt and decisive action. 

The most dangerous foes to any government are those 
within its own borders. If the people are loyal and 
true, and determined to preserve the honor and integrity 
of their nation at whatever cost, they will present a 
united front to whatever foreign ally that may oppose 
them, with hope of success; but let them become de- 
moralized among themselves, lose their discipline and 
valor, and there is danger that the subjects of such a 
government will not be true to her best interests in the 
time of its necessity. What a proud empire was Greece, 
and how much she had to be proud of! Her days of 
classical story were brilliant. Were the trophies of 
genius ever piled higher than there? Did mind ever 
sparkle and shine with greater lustre than among her 
philosophers and sages? Was not Athens world-re- 
nowned for the perfection of the arts and sciences and 
the graces and accomplishments of her people ? But all 
this did not save it. It fell, not so much by the force 
of the Roman arms, as by her own effeminate indul- 
gence. The pageantry and pomp of the seven-hilled 
city was once a wonder to the world ; but the tumult 
of the multitude has long since died away, and its 
mighty ruins alone remain to tell the story of its former 
greatness and magnificence to the passing traveller. It 
is true, the Goths and the Vandals came down upon her 
plains, and set fire to her cities ; but a reckless ruler, 
and a careless and besotted people, wantonly fed the 
flames that consumed their glory, instead of rising to 
18' 



290 INTEMPERANCE, 

repel the invading foe. "Wine and extravagance had 
taken the heart out of the nation, and unnerved the 
otherwise powerful arm, and its doom was sealed. Proud 
Babylon was another ancient city, nourishing and fa- 
mous, and history tells how drunkenness and revelry 
made it easy for the Medes and Persians to become its 
conquerors, and appropriate its vast possessions. "Had 
it not been for the debauchery of her king and princes, 
and the general effeminacy of her people, she might 
long have reared her lofty brow among the nations, with 
her hanging gardens and fair palaces, the admiration and 
delight of all beholders." And so it has been, and so it 
will be. A worm at the root may destroy the loftiest 
proportions, and lay that low which seems as the cedars 
of Lebanon in strength. 

It is not impossible that our own fair land may come 
under the withering stroke at some future day, unless 
the destructive ravages of the foe be stayed in their 
course. If intemperance be allowed to grow unchecked, 
we are not exempt from the fate of other nations. Its 
own legitimate results are the same everywhere. But 
we believe the American people will not abandon, their 
heritage to such a doom. If they take not warning 
from the example of other nations, their own inherent 
energy in the cause of truth and right will impel them 
to the use of means for their country's salvation. All 
through our wide dominions there is a voice that is an 
increasing volume of sound against the inroads of this 
mighty evil. Suppression is the cry, and the best meas- 
ure for its accomplishment is the question. It is hope- 
ful. It is a gigantic enterprise, and it requires a vast 
deal of machinery to keep it moving. Then let none 
despair, though it move slowly. The people are being 
educated up to the work, and in due time we may hope 
for glorious results. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 291 

There has been a great deal of legislation upon it in 
the different states, and various forms and measures 
resorted to, with the hope that some cure might be 
found for the terrible malady that is upon so many of 
our people. As every one knows, Maine was the first 
to wake up to the consciousness that something decisive 
must be done in the work of reform, and Hon. Neal 
Dow was the man to instigate and help forward the 
mighty enterprise. He was a man eminently fitted for 
the position. Already a public man, and enjoying the 
confidence and esteem of the people, it was not difficult 
to rally them when he lifted up the banner of temper- 
ance, and called them to his side. Of course, those 
who love to drink and those who like to sell will always 
wage unrelenting war with those who seek to take from 
them what they consider their own peculiar right and 
privilege. So it was there. But the strong man gained 
his cause. The prohibit o^ form in its beginning was 
less stringent than now. The agitation commenced in 
1846 ; but it was not until 1851 the law took such shape 
as really to affect the evil. Under the management of 
the practical and efficient leader, the bars and shops 
were closed that before had been inviting every one to 
enter and take as they pleased ; and the change which 
was soon apparent in the community not only awakened 
joy in the immediate vicinity, but operated as a grand 
inspiration to the men of other states, who went and did 
likewise. The results far surpassed the most sanguine 
expectations of its friends. Mr. Dow was mayor of Port- 
land, and there he brought all his personal and political 
influence to bear upon the cause, and for a time all went 
well. But underneath the surface there was a volcanic 
element at work, until finally it burst upon society, 
and did its scorching work. Every possible pretext 
was resorted to by a certain class as an excuse for 



292 INTEMPERANCE, 

disturbance. At length they banded together at a mid- 
night hour, and made a raid upon a quantity of liquor 
in possession of the municipal authorities, and in the 
excitement which followed, one of the men lost his life. 
From this time there was fearful disorder among these 
disaffected ones, and it continued to increase until the 
following election, when there was a contest of almost 
unparalleled fierceness between those who wanted the 
law and its non-supporters. The temperance vote was 
really stronger than before ; but owing to unusual and 
peculiar combinations, they were lost, and the legislature 
and governor were after the pattern of the rum-loving 
people. Five years the law had been giving out its bless- 
ings ; but now the thing was reversed. License took 
the place of prohibition, and in every city, town, and 
village there was the open bar, the gay saloon, and the 
less inviting shop. Liquor was flowing everywhere in 
the state, and so alarming were the consequences, " the 
philanthropist, patriot, and Christian sprang to the res- 
cue ; " nor did they cease their labors until the law again 
triumphed for the right, and they were planted more 
immovably than ever on the prohibitory platform. From 
this time they became an abiding power in the land. 

Other states tried the same with varying results. 
Some have been found strong enough to enact the law, 
and yet have been wanting in moral force to insure its 
application, and consequently have failed to reap the 
good of it. Massachusetts took it to herself in 1852. 
Alternate success and defeat have been its history ever 
since ; but, in the main, the friends of temperance have 
held the ground. 4i What is right never fails," says one, 
" though the ignorant and sordid may reject it for a 
time. Wrong always has failed, and in spite of the 
' archangel ruined,' it always will." This thought 
animated the host of temperance workers, and nerved 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 293 

them for action in every hour of seeming repulse. As a 
specimen of the efficiency of the law, the United States 
revenue tax on sales of liquor was reduced in one 
district in Boston, by the vigilance of the state con- 
stable, acting in obedience to the prohibitory statute, 
from twenty-four thousand dollars a month to six thou- 
sand dollars for the same time. Under the temporary 
victory of the liquor sellers, it was raised almost imme- 
diately to nearly the original sum — a very evident fact 
in favor of the law of prohibition. In two years it closed 
hundreds of dram shops, and shut up more than twenty- 
five hundred bars in the city of Boston alone ; and in 
less than a year paid almost two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars into the treasury of the state, realized 
from fines, and value of liquors seized and sold. 

The people of New England continued to knock at the 
doors of their respective legislative halls, and one after 
another of the representatives of the different states 
were commissioued to petition for this beneficent law. 

It went into operation in Connecticut in 1854, under 
the administration of Governor Dutton, a wise and emi- 
nent statesman, who held it — to use his own words — 
" as a rod over the heads of those who would otherwise 
cause intemperance to spread.'' New Hampshire came 
under its dominion a year later, and the estimation in 
which it is held there is seen in the statement of one of 
her leading men, Judge Upton, who says of it, " It has 
been matured by the ablest jurists in the state and not 
a man known in the political history of the same ever 
recorded his name against it. It has stood the test of 
judicial investigation, and has proved its power. Its 
effectiveness will disarm its opponents and perpetuate 
its existence.." 

When the bill came up for discussion in New York, that 
state became the theatre of great excitement. On its 



294 INTEMPERANCE, 

presentation to the legislature, every possible thing in 
the line of opposition was brought in its way ; and in 
tire Senate, also, every available obstruction was placed 
in its path ; but still it passed, and received the signature 
of the governor; and when it was known, a burst of 
gladness was heard from every side. The news spread 
rapidly, and never was a law more gladly heralded than 
that among an anxious and waiting people. A congrat- 
ulatory meeting was held in the city of New York, and 
the vast assembly seemed determined never again to 
submit to alcoholic dominion. Spirited speeches were 
made, and general enthusiasm prevailed. Henry Ward 
Beecher, in speaking of it, said, " This was the most 
important meeting that had been gathered in New York 
for many a day. The whole state would be looking 
towards it. They would ask, What does the city of New 
York think about that Maine Law ? What is the pulse 
there ? and what do they intend to do about it ? We 
had, at last, procured common and statutory law to this 
effect, that making and selling intoxicating drinks, for 
purposes of diet, was now declared, by the voice of the 
people (what he regarded as common law), and by the 
voice of their representatives (which was statutory law),' 
to be a crime. We might be baffled and balked a great 
while before we could make all the teeth of this law 
meet, with a good subject between them ; we might have 
to deal with men who could come, and disappear, as 
spirits do ; but there was one thing they could not re- 
verse ; after years of discussion, the people in this Em- 
pire State had declared, that the making and selling of 
intoxicating drinks, for such purposes, was a crime. 
The principle w.as born ; and there was nothing born 
on the face of this earth that carried such joy as the birth 
of a moral principle. They could never get that back 
again ; they might as well try to crowd the last year's 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 295 

chicken into the shell. Till now, we had been working 
zigzag before this Sebastopol ; but we could not be long 
taking it. Efforts would be made to destroy the law in 
the courts ; but what the courts decided to be wrong 
could be rectified ; we were in for the battle, and would 
have perseverance and ingenuity until the law succeeded. 
The voice which the state sent up to the city was, 
" Will you abide by the prohibitory law ? " The response 
he would send back was this : " We are watching and 
waiting ; we are like the men at Waterloo, lying close 
to the ground, until they should hear the old hero cry, 
4 Up, Guards, and at them.' " 

This meeting was followed by another of a different 
character at Tammany Hall, where the liquor dealers 
and their sympathizers assembled, and in violent language 
denounced the law as unconstitutional and fanatical. 
For a time, the mayor of the city — Mr. Wood — : seemed 
disposed to recognize the dignity of law, and give his 
authority to its enforcement ; but he was finally over- 
ruled by injudicious advisers, and the law was practically 
a dead letter. Not so was it in every place. There 
were those who stood boldly up, and said, " The law is a 
law now," and wherever it was violated it was the duty 
of officials to recognize the violation, and act accordingly. 
Shortly after, however, the matter was brought before 
the Court of Appeals, and the whole declared unconsti- 
tutional. An effort was made to introduce a prohibitory 
bill, but it was rejected, and the legislature adjourned, 
leaving the state without any law that would touch the 
nefarious -traffic. Thus was enthusiasm speedily turned 
into mourning. After a while the license system was 
adopted, though with restrictions that made it a little 
more hopeful for those who were waiting for the redemp- 
tion of the people from the bondage of rum. Those who 
drank and those who sold found quite a margin for their 



296 INTEMPEBANCE, 

comfort in it, for, in good measure, the thing was le- 
galized and protected by the state. Notwithstanding all 
the effort that was put forth, — and it was by no means 
small, — the " Excise Law" remained on the statute- 
books of the state. Remonstrance was useless. The 
" Local Option" bill was adopted, but the veto of the 
governor put an end to that. In 1873, another effort 
was made to secure the passage of a prohibitory bill ; but 
this, too, proved abortive in the end, and the problem 
is yet before the people. 

Several states have adopted the " Civil Damage " sys- 
tem — a law which had its origin in Massachusetts, and 
makes rum sellers responsible for damages. It is consid- 
ered u a wise and righteous provision to attach to a law 
of prohibition ; but attached to a license law, as in Illi- 
nois, it is simply a provision to license men to sell rum, 
if they will put themselves under three thousand dollar 
bonds to pay all damages ; which is just as wrong as it 
would be to license men to do any other evil, if they will 
pay damages." Michigan and Iowa have been able to 
secure legislative action in favor of prohibition, but most 
of the states are still struggling towards this goal of their 
ambition. Pennsylvania is under " Local Option," and 
Delaware, West Virginia, and Illinois have the " Civil 
Damage" features ; all of which do something to check 
a bad cause, but fail to realize the ideal of what the 
true friends of temperance wish to see, and hope, 
eventually, to accomplish. In all the Western States, 
and far on to the Pacific coast, the public sentiment 
is thoroughly aroused. All the various temperance 
societies are working to secure legislative interference in 
such way as shall effectually suppress the growing evil. 
But state legislation is not enough in the matter. A 
national evil requires national consideration, and there- 
fore the wise and thoughtful among the friends of tern- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 297 

perance resolved that something be done to make it a 
national as well as a local issue. Looking at it in con- 
nection with the public economy and welfare, it assumed 
an importance second to none other, and therefore the 
following "Memorial" was presented to the United 
States Senate and House of Representatives. This was 
done through the action of the National Temperance 
Society, the last year, and was approved and indorsed by 
the various organizations and societies that were enlisted 
in the cause of temperance. 

u Your memorialists, citizens of the United States, re- 
spectfully represent, that the use of intoxicating liquors 
as a beverage is a prolific source of pauperism and crime, 
resulting, directly or indirectly, in the destruction of the 
happiness of many thousands of your constituents ; that 
the manufacture, importation, and sale of such liquors, 
to be used as a beverage, is inimical to the public wel- 
fare ; that, in the pecuniary aspect, the amount of reve- 
nue derived to the government from intoxicating liquors 
is much more than counterbalanced by the taxation which 
their use as a beverage occasions, together with the loss 
of wealth-producing capacity on the part of those who 
use them ; that it is the proper function of government, 
after the divine model, not to legalize iniquity for the 
sake of gain, but to restrain and prohibit that which 
tends to the demoralization of the people, and to promote 
the general welfare. We therefore respectfully ask you to 
authorize the appointment by the President, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, of a Commission of 
Inquiry of five or more competent persons, to serve without 
salary for one year, more or less, whose duty it shall be 
to investigate: First. The subject of prohibitory legisla- 
tion, and its effects upon intemperance during the period 
(over twenty years) covered by such legislation, in 



298 INTEMPERANCE, 

Maine, Massachusetts, and other states of the Union ; 
Second. To inquire and take testimony as to the re- 
sults of the legalized liquor traffic, in states wherein it 
prevails, upon the general condition, the moral, social, 
intellectual, and material well-being, of the people ; and, 
Third. To recommend what additional legislation, if any, 
would be beneficial, on the part of Congress, to prevent, 
in the sphere of national authority, the traffic in intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage. We ask that the Commis- 
sioners be appointed solely with reference to personal 
fitness for the duties with which they will be intrusted, 
irrespective of political or partisan consideration ; and 
that they be authorized to employ a clerk, with reasona- 
ble compensation, and to have such expenses as are inci- 
dental to their investigations defrayed. We are well 
assured that the full and impartial investigation for 
which we ask, with your official authority and co-opera- 
tion, concerning this vital subject, will be most welcome 
at the present time to a large, influential, and intelligent 
portion of citizens in all parts of the country. 

4 'William E. Dodge, President. 
" J. M. Stearns, Corresponding Secretary" 

This was done with the hope that a more comprehen- 
sive and reliable statistical information would be brought 
before the people generally, which should be to them as 
accurate and convincing proof of the alarming extent of 
the evil, and also of the wisdom and efficiency of the 
measures alreac'v in existence and in process of opera- 
tion. Said he who stood up to plead in its behalf, " I 
believe the hour is at hand when we must take a forward 
step in dealing with this problem; when, if we would 
not go backward, we must wisely take a step forward. 
Look about in the different states of this Union, and you 
will find, in almost all of them, this question has thrust 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 299 

itself forward. It cannot be, it will not be, it ought not 
to be put down ; and we bring it here because here are 
the headquarters ; here, too, is the responsibility just as 
direct on your shoulders as representatives of the nation, 
as in your respective states the responsibility is direct as 
citizens thereof." The matter was fully discussed on the 
floor of Congress, and what shall be the result remains 
for the future to disclose. When the American people 
as a nation shall rise in their strength, and proclaim pro- 
hibition through the length and breadth of the land, and 
moral principle shall be sufficiently strong to prove a 
propelling force in its application, there will dawn a 
brighter day than has yet been known in all their history. 
Nothing that can be done would so elevate and ennoble 
the mass of the people as this. Nothing but " total 
abstinence for the individual and prohibition for the 
state," can save us from the withering blight of intemper- 
ance. The contest is open, and the war is being waged ; 
and who will enlist ? It is a better and more hopeful 
work than animated the crusaders of old, and made them 
willing to peril their lives by a long and doubtful pilgrim- 
age. As a partial and forcible reply to the question we 
have asked, we subjoin the following from the pen of 
Dr. Holland on 

THE GREAT TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 

For years and years, and weary, suffering years, mul- 
tiplied into decades, have the women of America waited 
to see that traffic destroyed which annually sends sixty 
thousand of their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands 
into the drunkard's grave. ' They have been impover- 
ished, disgraced, tortured in mind and body, beaten, 
murdered. Under the impulse of maddening liquors the 
hands that were pledged before Heaven to provide for 
and protect them have withdrawn from them the means 



300 INTEMPERANCE, 

of life, or smitten them in the dust. Sons whom they 
have nursed upon their bosoms with tenderest love and 
countless prayers, have grown into beasts, of whom they 
are afraid, or have sunk into helpless and pitiful slavery. 
They have been compelled to cover their eyes with shame 
in the presence of fathers whom it would have been bliss 
for them to hold in honor. They have been compelled 
to bear children to men whose habits had unfitted them 
for parentage — children not only tainted by disease, but 
endowed with debased appetites. They have seen them- 
selves and their precious families thrust into social degra- 
dation, and cut off forever from all desirable life by the 
vice of the men they loved. "What the women of this 
country have suffered from drunkenness, no mind, how- 
ever sympathetic, can measure, and no pen, however 
graphic, can describe. It has been the unfathomable 
black gulf into which infatuated multitudes of men have 
thrown their fortunes, their health, and their industry, 
and out of which have come only — in fire and stench — 
dishonor, disease, crime, misery, despair, and death. It 
is the abomination of abominations, the curse of curses, 
the hell of hells ! 

For weary, despairing years, they have waited to see 
the reform that should protect them from further harm. 
They have listened to lectures, they have signed pledges, 
they have encouraged temperance societies, they have 
asked for and secured legislation, and all to no practical 
good end. The politicians have played them false ; the 
officers of the law are unfaithful ; the government reve- 
nue thrives on the thriftiness of their curse ; multitudes 
of the clergy are not only apathetic in their pulpits, but 
self-indulgent in their social habits ; newspapers do not 
help, but rather hinder them ; the liquor interest, armed 
with the money that should have bought them prosperity, 
organizes against them ; fashion opposes them ; a million 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 301 

fierce appetites are arrayed against them, and, losing all 
faith in men, what can they do ? There is but one thing 
for them to do. There is but one direction in which 
they can look, and that upward ! The women's temper- 
ance movement, begun and carried on by prayer, is as 
natural in its birth and growth as the oak that springs 
from the acorn. If God and the godlike element in 
women cannot help, there is no help. If the pulpit, the 
press, the politicians, the reformers, the law, cannot bring 
reform, who is there left to do it but God and the wo- 
men ? We bow to this movement with reverence. We 
do not stop to question methods ; we do not pause to 
query about permanent results. We simply say to the 
glorious women engaged in this marvellous crusade, 
" May God help and prosper you, and give you the 
desire of your hearts in the fruit of your labors." 

It becomes men to be either humbly helpful or dumb. 
We who have dallied with this question ; we who have 
dispassionately drawn the line between temperance and 
total abstinence ; we who have deplored drunkenness, 
with wine-glasses in our hands ; we who have consented 
to involve a great moral reform with politics ; we who 
have been politically afraid of the power of the brutal 
element associated with the liquor traffic ; we who have 
split hairs in our discussions of public policy ; we who 
have given social sanction to habits that in the great 
cities have made drunkards of even the women them- 
selves, and led then: sons and ours into a dissolute life ; 
we who have shown either our unwillingness or our im- 
potence to save the country from the gulf that j^awns 
before it, — can only step aside with shamefaced humility 
while the great crusade goes on, or heartily give to it our 
approval and our aid. 

This is not a crusade of professional agitators, clamor- 
ing for an abstract right, but an enterprise of suffering, 



302 INTEMPEKANCE. 

pure and devoted women, laboring for the overthrow of 
a concrete wrong. It is no pleasant, holiday business in 
which these women are engaged, but one of self-denying 
hardship, pregnant in every part with a sense of duty. 
Is is the offspring of a grand religious impulse which 
gives to our time its one superb touch of heroism, and 
redeems it from its political debasement and the degra- 
dation of its materialism. It is a shame to manhood 
that it is necessary; it is a glory to womanhood that 
it is possible. 

If the experience of the last century has demonstrated 
anything, it is that total abstinence is the only ground 
on which any well-wisher of society can stand. The 
liquor traffic has been bolstered up for years, and is strong 
to-day, simply through influence which is deemed re- 
spectable. It must be made infamous by the combination 
of all the respectable elements of society against it. It 
must cease to be respectable to drink at all. It must 
cease to be respectable to rent a building in which liquors 
are sold. There is no practicable middle ground. So 
long as men drink temperately, men will drink intemper- 
ately, whether it ought to be otherwise or not ; and it is 
with reference to the development of a healthy public 
opinion on this subject that we particularly rejoice in the 
woman's crusade. Our own vision is so blinded and per- 
verted that we can only see the deformity of the monster 
which oppresses us through woman's eyes, uplifted in 
prayer, tearful in shame and suffering, or bright in 
triumph, as the strongholds of her life-long enemy fall 
before her. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



Here and there in the history of the past, we are led 
to see the workings of some great reform, and as the 
historian leads us on through all the intricate windings 
that must needs be compassed before the grand result 
can be reached, we are convinced that nothing worthy, — 
nothing far-reaching and substantial can be wrought out 
except through much toil and pains-taking. The most 
valuable things of earth can be had only by delving for 
them. The richest veins of metals lie where man must 
dig long and patiently, if he would make them available 
for practical use. Glistening pearls lie embedded in 
the ocean sands, and the diver must subject himself to 
peculiar danger and hardship, if he would make their 
rare brilliancy minister to human gratification ; and the 
gold and the pearl, after they are brought to light, must 
needs go through a process of one kind and another before 
they are fitted to meet the demands of those who require 
them. It seems to be a universal law — one that heaven 
has instituted — that labor and toil shall be the price of 
every thing good. The thoughtful mind will perceive the 
wisdom of the plan, and see how it tends to the highest 
good of men, and the development of the truest and most 
efficient character. This same principle that holds good 
in the natural world is also true in the moral. Almost all 
the revolutionary movements that have affected the moral 
condition of mankind, have been characterized by slow 



304 INTEMPERANCE, 

and laborious working, that at times have made their 
strongest supporters grow faint lest they fail of the ulti- 
mate good they had in view. Truth and error have always 
been at war with each other, and the good is only evoked 
through conflict. That mighty reformation of Luther' s time 
cost a great deal. There were prisons, and judgments of 
various kinds, before those who were bent upon realizing 
the lofty ideal that a heaven-directed imagination had 
given them to see. Nothing could intimidate those heroic 
souls, that were bound to do and dare for the sublime 
purpose of freeing human souls from the shackles of 
priestly superstition, and opening the door through which 
all might pass to the land of religious freedom. That, 
like a beautiful Canaan, was ever beckoning them onward. 
The promise of what might be enjoyed there was always 
an incentive to vigorous action, and thus allured, they 
counted not their lives dear to them, if so be the goal 
could be won. The victory was gained, and it sent a wave 
of blessing through all the earth, vivifying, by a thousand 
crystal streamlets, the moral vineyard every where. We 
exult to-day in what was wrought out so painfully. We are 
higher in the scale of being now, for every weary step of 
those determined, earnest workers. 

Let us not fail to understand and appreciate the way in 
which the most and the best of life's blessings come to 
us. They are associated with toil and sacrifice. Some- 
body must work long and hard to make them available 
in practical life. There must be delving and digging 
somewhere to bring out and beautify the gems that are 
encrusted with much of crude material that make the 
process slow and discouraging at times. Thoughts like 
these take possession of the mind, as we stand and look 
out upon the present agitation which is swaying the friends 
of temperance, and moving them to a work of reform. 



ITS ASPECTS AND ITS REMEDY. 805 

It may, and doubtless will be, a long and stern conflict ; 
and those who go forth to do battle need to be well pano- 
plied, and to gird themselves for resolute action, and be 
prepared for all sorts of patient endurance. The Crusaders 
of old faltered not in their march, though upon every 
print of the foot they left their life-blood as a mark. Be- 
fore them was a holy shrine, and that shrine was in the 
hands of profane men, as they thought, and at all hazards 
it must be rescued and preserved. A far more sacred 
object is before the Temperance Crusaders of to-day. 
There are thousands of shrines in human hearts that are 
polluted and endangered, and the question is, Can they 
be saved ? Let the small host who have risen up to start 
on the mighty enterprise, be made still stronger. Without 
distinction of rank or sex, the ranks should be increased, 
for the end sought is of universal interest, and any one 
who enlists in the service can work with the confident 
assurance that every thing done in this direction is a part 
of that blessed reformation which the world greatly needs, 
and which, could it be obtained, would be like bathing us 
all in sunshine. The magnitude of the work should by 
no means appall. It will cost a great deal, but it is worth 
the cost. If the veterans fall before the goal is won, let 
others take their places and march on to the front. If 
the standard-bearers grow feeble and faint, let the more 
youthful and stronger ones seize the banner and carry it 
forward to victory, amid the shouts and rejoicings of a 
grateful people. 



19 



FULL DESCRIPTION 

OP THE 

OEIGI2J AHD PEOGEESS 

OP THE 

New Plan of Labor by the Women 

UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

By T. A. H. BROWN, 

REPORTER FOR THB CINCINNATI GAZETTE, WHO WAS CONSTANTLY IN THE FIELD. 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY DIO LEWIS 



EARLY IMPRESSED WITH THE POWER OF PRATER. — THREE HUNDRED 
AND FORTY LECTURES ON THE SUBJECT. — THE FIRST INSTANCES 
WHERE THIS POWER WAS TRIED UPON GROG SHOPS. — DIXON, ILL., 
AND BATTLE CREEK, MICH., DRIVE OUT THE DRAM SELLERS. — 
HOW THe MOVEMENT- WAS SMOTHERED IN MANCHESTER, N. H. — 
THE MOVEMENT ANALYZED. — A PRAYER MEETING FROM BEGINNING 
TO END. — DIFFERENCE IN PRAYERS. — THE PLAN WHICH LARGE 
CITIES SHOULD ADOPT. 

The present wide-spread interest in the Woman's 
Temperance Movement* has suggested the preparation 
of the following facts in its history. 

When I was a boy, my father's habitual intemperance 
kept our humble home in a deep shadow. My mother 
was obliged to earn with her own hands the food for 
her five children, and then to cook it ; she was obliged 
to earn the material for our clothing, and then to cut 
and make it ; she was general provider, cook, house- 
keeper, nurse, — in brief, she was everything to her 
family. In addition to all this, she was not unfre- 
quently the victim of abuse and personal violence. But, 
a high-spirited woman, she refused to entertain the idea 
of separation, and bore all her sorrows with Christian 
fortitude. But sometimes the trouble was more than 
she could bear, when she would burst into tears, and, 
leaving us, would climb up into the garret of our house 



ITS ASPECT AXD ITS KEMEDY* Sll 

to pray. We youngsters used to listen and hear her cry 
out in anguish, " O Lord, how long, how long, how 
long ! O God, help me, help me, help me ! " Then she 
would be still for a while ; and when she came down to 
us again, we noticed that although her eyes were red, 
her face shone like an angel's. The day was never so 
dark at our house that my precious mother could not 
go up into the attic, open the cloud, and let in the light 
of heaven. 

I grew up with an exalted conception of the power 
of a woman's prayer. Even now, at the distance of 
more than forty years from those dark days, I never 
think of any great evil or criminal, that my mind does 
not immediately busy itself with the thought, that, 
through woman's prayer, all this might be cured. 

About twenty years ago, I prepared with great inter- 
est an Address upon the Power of Woman's Prayer in 
Grog Shops. During these twenty years I have deliv- 
ered that Address more than three hundred and forty 
times, and have constantly cherished a firm confidence 
that the time would come when through woman's prayer 
the dram shops of our country would be closed. 

About nineteen years ago the plan was tried in a small 
village in New York, with good results. About fifteen 
years ago, while lecturing in the west, on the subject of 
Physical Education, I proposed, at Dixon, 111., to the 
Rev. Mr. Harsha and other clergymen in Dixon, to de- 
liver my Address on the subject of the Power of Woman's 
Prayer in Grog Shops, if, on a certain Sunday evening, 
they would all forego their regular exercises, and attend 
in the large hall. They expressed some doubt about the 
propriety ^temperance lectures '-&&. the Sabbath day ; 
Jtiio when I explained the general spirit ail4 drift of my 
address, they consented. The hall was crowded, &nd at 
the close of the meeting a committee of three women was 



312 INTEMPEFwANCE, 

elected to prepare an appeal from the women of Dixon 
to the dealers in intoxicating drinks there, and a com- 
mittee of fifty women to circulate that appeal among 
the dram sellers. The next morning the visiting com- 
mittee held a meeting, heard the appeal read, liked it, 
adopted it, and immediately started out with it and sev- 
eral pledges which had been prepared meantime. They 
went from saloon to saloon, pleading, singing, praying. 
In one week their task was finished ; thirty-nine dram 
shops were closed, and the papers announced that not 
even a glass of lager beer could be purchased in town. 

I left Dixon soon after, and went on my way, dis- 
cussing and urging the cause of physical training for the 
young of our country, in which I was then, and, indeed, 
have ever since been, deeply interested. It is not im- 
probable, if this movement had been pushed, and town 
after town enlisted in the good work, that the great 
revolution now going forward in the country might have 
been developed at that time ; but I was then so deeply 
impressed with the vital importance of the educational 
work I had undertaken, that I thought even the temper- 
ance reform one of secondary importance. However, a 
few months later, the Woman's Temperance Movement 
was inaugurated at Battle Creek, Mich. The Rev. 
Charles Jones, Congregational minister of that city, now 
residing at Saxonville, Mass., and, indeed, all the cler- 
gymen of that (Mfs including the Episcopal, responded 
to my suggestion for a union Sabbath evening temper- 
ance meeting in the large hall, dismissing the regular 
religious exercises in the churches, and bringing their 
congregations with them to the hall. 

The same steps were taken ; a comznittee of five 
women to draft an appeal, and a committee of a hundred 
women to circulate it, with the prepared pledges, were 
elected at the close of the meeting ; and before noon of 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 313 

the following day, the committee of visitation, marching 
two by two, and extending more than two blocks, halted 
in front of the hotel where I was stopping, to show me 
a large sign with the word "Saloon," which four of 
them were carrying, the first trophy. Within two weeks 
the fifty dram shops in town had been closed, with the 
exception of one, a large drinking, billiard, and gambling 
institution, which held out for three weeks longer. 

But even this marvellous success did not induce me 
to turn aside from the cause of physical education, and 
engage in the Woman's Temperance Movement. 

Soon after that time, I went to Boston to establish 
the Normal Institute of Physical Education, to train 
teachers of the new gymnastics. For years I continued, 
body and soul, in that work ; and then came that part 
of my history devoted to the establishment of the edu- 
cational institution at Lexington, where I hoped to illus- 
trate the possibilities in the physical training of young 
women during the period of their school life. 

During the four years given to the Lexington work* 
and up to the time that those magnificent buildings 
were destroyed by fire, I scarcely thought of anything 
outside. 

I removed again to Boston, six years ago, with the 
intention of devoting the residue of my life to writing 
and lecturing upon the subject of education. In one of 
my books published shortly after, through the Harpers 
under the title of " Our Girls," I recurred to the 
Woman's Temperance Movement, and published in that 
work the details of the attempts made years before to 
close dram shops through the pleading, songs, and pray- 
ers of women. I then seriously resolved to attempt the 
inauguration of a Woman's Temperance Movement in 
New England, and selected Manchester, N. H., for the 
first trial. I spent a week in that city in preparation* 



814 INTEMPERANCE, 

Nearly all of the clergymen were interested, and many 
leading citizens promised to occupy seats on the plat- 
form. Mr. Clark, United States senator, presided. The 
meeting was held in Smythe's Hall, was immense in num- 
bers, and not only was conducted in accordance with 
the programme, but was altogether one of the most mag- 
nificent meetings I have ever attended. At the close 
of the meeting we attempted to organize the regular 
committees ; but the crowd was so great that it was 
thought better to adjourn, to meet the next morning at 
ten o'clock, to complete the business arrangements. 
The meeting next morning was full and enthusiastic ; 
the committees were appointed, and everything looked 
most auspicious. I had thus far been so conspicuous in 
the work, and was so anxious withal that it should be a 
Woman's Movement, that I thought it wise to leave 
Manchester and our good cause in the hands of the com- 
mittee of two hundred women. I returned to Boston, 
and waited for reports from Manchester. The women 
had a large meeting the next morning ; were advised by 
the men not to go at once to the dram shops with the 
appeal and pledges which had been prepared, but to cir- 
culate petitions through the city, and gather the names 
of all the women and girls over fifteen years of age, 
which should be published and circulated among the 
dram shops before the visits of the women began. This 
task occupied two weeks ; the names were published, 
making quite a large pamphlet. These pamphlets were 
circulated among the dram sellers, and in four weeks 
the women called a meeting with the intention of start- 
ing out in the regular work of visiting the dram shops, 
but the meeting was a small one, and lacked enthusiasm ; 
great variety of opinion was expressed in reference to 
the propriety and wisdom of this and that, and the 
Woman's Temperance Movement in Manchester was 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 315 

abandoned, though all cherished the belief that mnch 
good had been done by way of elevating public senti- 
ment. 

At Nashua, N. H., Natick, Mass., and at other points 
in New England, I made attempts to establish the work, 
but was everywhere more or less disappointed with a 
lack of unanimity and enthusiasm among clergymen. 
Since that time I have continued, as the public knows, 
to lecture on the subject of education, and have pub- 
lished several volumes on the subject, which have had a 
wide circulation. 

Last December, while lecturing in Southern Ohio be- 
fore the Lyceums upon the Higher Education of Our 
Girls, I devoted some spare evenings to the discussion 
of the Woman's Temperance Movement. The first 
meeting was held in Hillsboro', the second in Washing- 
ton, Faj^ette Co. ; the whole world knows the rest of 
the story. 

I cannot give the story of the Woman's Temperance 
Movement without giving my own relations with it. 
Omitting this, it would seem to have been a series of 
accidents, of inexplicable happenings. I trust the read- 
er will excuse so much that is merely personal. 

The Woman's Temperance Movement is one of the 
most profoundly religious revolutions the world has ever 
seen. It is very simple ; a prayer-meeting from begin- 
ning to end. What seems a series of stages in the work 
is nothing but a change of place for the prayer meeting. 
First it is in the closet, then in the vestry of the church, 
then in the saloon ; but it is nothing more nor less than a 
prayer meeting from beginning to end. And I notice 
that many clergymen and religious papers speak of it as 
illustrating the power of prayer, and as a triumphant 
response to Professor Tyndall's proposition. I am happy 
and grateful in the belief that this view is just ; but I 



316 INTEMPERANCE, 

must take pains to say that I have not observed that 
prayer has served in this cause, unless it is of one pe- 
culiar kind. I have heard men pray, during the last few 
months, for the suppression of dram shops. I do not 
believe that their prayers have added to the success of 
the Woman's Temperance Movement. Their prayers 
have been mostly from the base of their brains. Let me 
illustrate. Not long since, in Ohio, I heard a man pray 
in a gathering about a saloon. I recall distinctly certain 
sentences in his prayer, but I shall not be able to give 
you his manner , I can only say that his fists were closed, 
and he shook his head while he was praying. He cried 
in a loud voice, " And now, Almighty God, wilt thou 
soften his hard heart ; wilt thou, with thy own right 
arm, break his obdurate will," &c. Of course that 
prayer was not meant for God's ear ; it was designed for 
the chap inside of the saloon ; but an eternity of such 
prayers, uttered by all the men on the globe, would not 
close one dram shop. 

Shortly after the man's prayer was finished, an igno- 
rant girl prayed, and her prayer was the sort which has 
accomplished this great temperance revolution. I recall 
some of the sentences which were uttered in a voice 
sweet and tender beyond my power of description. She 
said, " Father, we thank thee that we can do this ; 
and if thou dost not give us the answers we ask, we are 
thankful all just the same. Dear Father, we thank thee 
that we are permitted to do this work of love ; we feel 
ourselves coming nearer and nearer to thee. Dear 
Father, we thank thee for this sweet privilege with all 
our hearts. Dear Father, the distance between thee 
and the best of us is so great, and the distance between 
the best of us and the worst of us so small, that if 
thou canst be patient, loving, and forgiving towards the 
best of us, we shall find it easy to be patient, loving, and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 317 

forgiving towards the worst of our fellows. Dear Father, 
fill our hearts with love ; in all our thoughts, in all our 
Words, may we breathe only the spirit of Jesus." 

Thus, when it is claimed by Christians that the suc- 
cess of the Woman's Temperance Movement is in answer 
to prayer, it must never be forgotten that the kind of 
prayer which has been followed by the great blessing is 
that uttered by this Ohio girl. This gives the key-note 
of the great campaign. 

That the Woman's Temperance Movement is success- 
ful in villages and small towns no one doubts ; but there 
is very considerable doubt about its success in large 
cities. For myself, I have not a shadow of doubt that 
it will prove successful in the large cities, under the fol- 
lowing management : — 

First. Let each church organize a daily prayer meet- 
ing. From this prayer meeting let committees of two 
or three Avomen be sent out at once, and constantly to 
visit the owners of real estate where drams are sold, and 
the private homes of those who keep the saloons. They 
will plead with these persons to sign the pledge that 
they will do so no more. These small committees will 
report every day at the prayer meetings, and within a 
week ten or fifteen of these small committees will have 
visited as many persons as they can undertake to labor 
with. 

Second. After one or two weeks, these church prayer 
meetings will send out committees of five women, to visit 
the dram sellers at their places of business, to quietly 
plead with them, and before they leave, kneel in a cor- 
ner of the bar-room for a few moments of silent praj^er. 

Third. After one or two weeks of this labor, the 
women will generally conclude to send out larger parties, 
say of thirty to fifty, to hold religious exercises in some 
of the larger drinking places, with a distinct understand- 



818 INTEMPERANCE, 

ing that when a disturbance is threatened, they imme- 
diately resolve themselves into the smaller committees 
of the second method, and do not gather again in large 
companies perhaps for that day, certainly not until they 
see an opportunity to work more effectively in large 
bodies. 

God is in the cities quite as much as in the country ; 
the women of the cities are as intelligent and as sor- 

•y. ... 

rowful over the curse of dram shops as their sisters m 
the country ; and if they manage in the way I have sug- 
gested, will as certainly succeed as the women of small 
towns. 

Very respectfully, 

DIO LEWIS. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 319 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ORIGIN OF THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. — THE NEW LAW FOR THE SUP- 
PRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. — DIO LEWIS'S PLAN AT HILLSBORO'. — 
WASHINGTON COURT-HOUSE THE NEXT PLACE. — HOW SLATER WAS 
SQUELCHED. — THE FIRST TABERNACLE. — SIEGE OF CHARLIE BECK, 
ETC. 

Seven cities of ancient Greece contended for the 
honor of being Homer's birthplace, and so there are sev- 
eral places that claim to have given to the world the 
" Woman's Temperance Movement." The controversy, 
however, narrows down to two small towns in South- 
ern Ohio, the names of which have already become 
familiar to the whole country. Before the remarkable 
scenes which closed the year 1873, Hillsboro' and Wash- 
ington Court-House were obscure hamlets, content with 
being the honored seats of their respective counties — 
Highland and Fayette. The movement was begun first 
in Hillsboro', but attained the most strength in Wash- 
ington, from which it came to be known as the " Wash- 
ington Court-House plan." 

Hillsboro' is one of those old aristocratic and some- 
what conservative towns which are sometimes found in 
the middle southern states, like a relic of a past genera- 
tion, and a standing reproof against the push and hurry 
of the average western city. It has about three thou- 
sand five hundred inhabitants, many of whom are de- 
scended from the old Virginia stock, and inherit the 
bibulous customs of the old-style gentleman. So many 
of the men were accustomed to their daily stimulant, 



320 INTEMPEBANCE, 

that the public mind was anything but sensitive on the 
temperance question, and saloon keepers were wont to 
ply their calling unmolested by law. Where liquor 
drinking was looked upon with some allowance, liquor 
selling was not deemed a disgrace. It seemed, there- 
fore, one of the most improbable things in the range of 
possibilities that Hillsboro' should lead off in as radical a 
movement for temperance reform as the world has ever 
seen. But it was destined so to be. 

On the evening of December 22, 1873, Dio Lewis, 
a Boston physician and lyceum lecturer, delivered in 
Music Hall a lecture on " Our Girls." He had been 
engaged during the autumn previous, by the Lecture 
Association, to fill one place in the winter course of lec- 
tures, merely for the entertainment of the people. • At 
the close of his address, he announced that he would 
speak to as many as chose to come and hear him, on the 
following night, on the subject of temperance. He gave 
some hints of a plan w r hich he proposed for a campaign 
in the interest of society. The audience, by a rising 
vote, requested him to remain and speak. 

On the following night a large and enthusiastic audi- 
ence assembled in the same place, to hear the proposed 
plan elaborated. Dr. Lewis delivered a stirring address 
on the general subject of temperance, after which he 
told, at some length, how a band of women in a New 
England manufacturing village had driven rum from 
their midst by a crusade of prayer and song. It was 
one of those dull, dead places, where the bo} r s worked 
in the mills, and the men got drunk for a business. 
There were six saloons in the town, and one night a 
company of these boys were enticed into one of them, 
and made drunk. When they were taken home their 
mothers and sisters were horrified. They saw that 
unless something was done, their brothers and sons 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 321 

would soon be as worthless as their husbands. One of 
these women was the speaker's mother, the wife of a 
drunken husband. Next day she collected a band of 
the mothers, wives, and sisters of the place, and they 
went to the church. There they poured out their 
hearts in prayer, and, kneeling about the altar in a 
circle, joined hands, and solemnly promised God and. 
each other never to give up until every dram shop in 
town was closed. 

Next day they went in a band to the saloon of the man 
who had made the boys drunk, and prayed and pleaded 
with him until he pledged himself never to sell intoxi- 
cating liquor again. Then they went to the other places, 
and after a while all but one promised they would quit if 
the rest would. The obstinate liquor seller for a time 
treated them with sarcastic politeness, thinking it was a 
feminine freak that would soon wear out. He ordered 
his " Boston rocker," and pillows for his head and feet, 
and, there being no other chairs in the room, urged the 
ladies to take seats, go on with their praying, and make 
themselves at home, while he took a nap. His business 
kept him up late at night, and made him sleepy. Then 
while they prayed and sang he snored ; but they knew 
all the time that he was awfully wide awake. At 
length there was a rustling of paper. The saloonist 
opened one eye a little, and the ladies were taking out 
lunches ! When it came night, and they went home, 
" Charlie " urged them to come again. He was always 
glad to see his friends, especially the ladies. They came 
again, and day after day, until Charlie's urbanity had 
subsided into sullen silence. At length, one day he 
broke in upon their devotions with, — 

" Hold on a minute. I want to know how long this 
devilish business is going to last ! " 

_ " Just so long," was the quiet reply, " as you persist 
in selling whiskey to our husbands and sons." 



322 INTEMPERANCE, 

A few more days, and Charlie yielded, and all the 
saloons were closed. That was nineteen years ago, and 
never from that day to this has there been a place in 
that village where a glass of intoxicating liquor could be 
bought. 

This was the doctor's plan for driving out saloons. 
The people of Hillsboro' could do it, if the women only 
had the energy, persistency, and true Christian spirit. 
So forcibly was the thing presented, that a motion was 
made to put the new idea into execution at once. It was 
carried by a rising vote. Secretaries were appointed, 
and seventy-five ladies enlisted on the spot to under- 
take the task. Addresses were made by the pastors of 
churches present, and by Colonel W. H. Trimble, all 
indorsing the movement, and pledging it their support. 
Mrs. J. H. Thompson, Mrs. P. J. Jeans, and Miss E. L. 
Grand-Girard were appointed a committee to write an 
appeal to be read to the liquor sellers by the committee 
of visitation. After voting to meet next morning, at 
ten o'clock, in the Presbyterian church, the meeting 
adjourned. It ought also to be stated that seventy-five 
men, in this meeting, put their names down as moral 
and pecuniary " backers " of the undertaking. 

At the morning meeting the ladies put their signa- 
tures to the following solemn compact : — 

" We, the ladies whose names are hereto appended, 
agree and resolve that, with God's help, we will stand 
by each other in this work, and persevere therein until 
it is accomplished, and see to it, as far as our influence 
goes, that the traffic shall never be revived." 

On Christmas morning, at nine o'clock, all prelimina- 
ries being arranged, one hundred and fifteen women 
filed out of the church, formed a procession, and marched 
to the drug stores. They went with trembling limbs and 
anxious hearts. It was to them a strange experiment, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 323 

a new idea. It seemed subversive of all the recognized 
rules of womanly conduct. The thought of going into 
a low part of the town, and entering one of those vile 
dens, which respectable people abhorred at a distance ; 
of kneeling in sawdust and filth to plead with bloated 
and beery saloon keepers, was all overwhelming to their 
finer sensibilities, and shocking to their modesty. They 
shrank from the task, half in doubt and half in fear. 
But again they thought of the drunkards that were 
reeling home from those saloons every night, — perhaps 
into their families, — and of the temptations that were 
lying in wait for their children in the future. Their 
misgivings left them, and personal considerations no 
longer had any weight. 

The drug stores were the first to receive attention. It 
was known that at one of these places, at least, the 
pestle and mortar at the door, and the rows of polished 
jars on the shelves, were but a disguise, under which 
was carried on an extensive retail liquor trade. A 
pledge was prepared to meet the case of all druggists, 
and on the morning of their first visit it was signed by 
two of the four drug stores — J. J. Brown and Seybert 
& Isamenn. Dr. W. R. Smith, the third druggist, who 
was also an elder in the Presbyterian church, would 
only sign with the proviso that he, as a physician, had a 
right to prescribe liquor, and sell on his own prescrip- 
tion. Of the fourth druggist, W. H. H. Dunn, more 
hereafter. 

On Friday, December 26, the saloons were visited. 
There were eleven of them, and they presented a defi- 
ant front. Mrs. J. H. Thompson, daughter of the late 
Governor Allen Trimble, made the first prayer in a 
liquor saloon during the movement. They secured no 
signatures that day. Uhrig was stubborn ; Ward said 
he was in a bad business, and meant to stop as soon as 

20 



324 INTEMPEKANCE, 

he felt able to do so ; Bales was flippant and hard ; the 
hotels couldn't do a profitable business without selling 
liquor ; and so the ladies separated to their homes, on 
the evening of the first day, with no victories to boast, 
but with new strength and determination in their 
hearts. 

The next morning the ladies received a communica- 
tion from Dunn, in reply to the appeal of the committee 
of visitation. It was as follows : — 

" Ladies : In compliance with my agreement, I give 
you this promise, — that I will carry on my business in 
the future as I have in the past ; that is to say, that in 
the sale of intoxicating liquors I will comply with the 
law ; nor will I sell to any person whose father, mother, 
wife, or daughter, sends me a written request not to 
make such sale." 

This was the first defiant blast from the notorious 
Dunn, who was destined to give more trouble to the 
* c crusaders," — as they came to be called, — than any 
other man during the whole course of the movement. 
Dunn is represented as a man of frank, open disposition, 
and a high sense of honor, which rendered the people 
unprepared for the violent opposition which he mani- 
fested. He was moved by no prayers, and would listen 
to no entreaties. For a while he made no objection to 
the ladies coming into his store, and carrying on their 
devotions ; but at length, one Friday morning, they 
found the door locked upon them, and were thereafter 
inexorably excluded. But this neither detracted from 
their ardor nor diminished their numbers. Prayer meet- 
ings were held on the walk in front of his door, while 
hundreds of sympathizing listeners stood about. 

It was a sight calculated to melt the stoutest heart. 
However bitter the cold, or piercing the wind, these 
women could be seen, at almost any hour of the day, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 325 

kneeling on the cold flag-stones before this store. In the 
midst, with voice raised in earnest prayer, is the daugh- 
ter of a former governor of Ohio. Surrounding her are 
the wives and daughters of statesmen, lawyers, bankers, 
physicians, and business men — representatives from 
nearly all the households of the place. The prayer 
ended, the women rise from their knees, and begin, in a 
low voice, some sweet and familiar hymn, that brings 
back to the heart of the looker-on the long-forgotten 
influences of childhood. Tears may be seen in the eyes 
of red-nosed and hard-hearted men, supposed to be long 
since past feeling. Passers-by lift their hats and step 
softly. Conversation is in subdued tones, and a sympa- 
thetic interest is depicted on every face. Then follow 
another subdued prayer and a song, at the close of which 
a fresh relay of women comes up, and the first ones 
retire to the residence of an honored citizen, close at 
hand, where a lunch is spread for their refreshment. 
Soon it is their turn to resume their praying and sing- 
ing ; and so the siege is kept up, from morning till night, 
and day after day, with little variation in method or 
incidents. 

Meanwhile the saloons had not been neglected. There 
was one kept by Joseph Lance, and known as the "Lava 
Bed" — doubtless a reminiscence of the Modoc war. 
This was the first to yield ; but as Joe had been arrested 
for the illegal sale of liquor, and two formidable indict- 
ments were hanging over him like a nightmare, his sur- 
render was not considered as a clear victory. But the 
establishment was closed forever, and the late proprie- 
tor embarked on a more respectable career as a fish- 
dealer. His fish were known as " cold-water fish," and 
found ready sale. 

Schwartz and Koch capitulated after a siege of two 
weeks, and shipped their liquors back to Cincinnati. 



326 INTEMPERANCE, 

Anxious to earn an honest penny, they made an auction 
of the various articles which comprised the outfit of 
their saloons, and thus afforded the temperance ladies 
an opportunity of expressing their professed friendship 
in dollars and cents. It was an amusing sight to see 
the crowd of pious sisters at the sale, running up old 
decanters, beer mugs, tumblers, and bottles, to fabulous 
prices, and then lugging home the trophies with an air 
of joyful pride ! They would not pay the saloon keep- 
ers for their stock of liquors, or loss of business, but 
when the whole was voluntarily abandoned, they were 
eager to help the men who suddenly found themselves 
without an occupation. 

Koch was formerly a shoemaker by trade, and no 
sooner had he resumed his old occupation than his fair 
customers fairly overwhelmed him with orders for shoes. 
Old dealers, who found their trade thereby so much 
diminished, almost wished they had been saloon keepers 
too, so they might have passed through the profitable 
experience of surrendering. Schwartz bought a stock 
of groceries, and found a good run of patronage from 
the start. He now measures out molasses and vinegar 
in the place of brandy and gin, and has neither the fear 
of the Adair law nor of praying women before his 
eyes. 

The war upon the saloons made slow but certain 
progress. By the 30th of January five saloons and three 
drug stores had yielded, and about the same number of 
saloons and one drug store remained. The following 
amusing "inside view." of one of these saloon visits 
appeared in a Cincinnati paper. It was given by a 
young blood who was there. " He and half a dozen 
others, who had been out of town, and did not know 
what was going on, had ranged themselves in the fa- 
miliar semicircle before the bar and had their drinks 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 327 

ready and cigars prepared for the match, when the 
rustle of women's wear attracted their attention, and 
looking up they saw what they thought a crowd of a 
thousand ladies entering. One youth saw among them 
his mother and sister, another had two cousins in the 
invading host, and a still more unfortunate recognized 
his intended mother-in-law ! Had the invisible prince 
of the pantomime touched them with his magic wand, 
converting all to statues, the tableau could not have 
been more impressive. For one full minute they stood 
as if turned to stone ; then a slight motion was evident, 
and lager beer and brandy smash descended slowly to 
the counter, while cigars dropped unlighted from nerve- 
less fingers. Happily, at- this juncture the ladies struck 
up — 

" O, do not be discouraged, 
For Jesus is your friend." 

It made a diversion, and the party escaped to the 
street, " scared out of a year's growth." 

Leaving the ladies praying with the remaining saloons 
and the invincible Dunn, we must follow the movement 
to Washington Court House, where it had been raging 
all this time with even more force, and with much great- 
er success. The work was inaugurated in Hillsboro' on 
the day before Christmas. From there Dio Lewis went 
to Washington, the county seat of Fayette County, where 
he delivered his lecture on " Our Girls " the same even- 
ing. During the course of his lecture he told his 
hearers he would like to see them all, Christmas morn- 
ing, and talk to them a little on the subject of temper- 
ance. Quite an audience was on hand at the appointed 
time, and after some general arguments, the doctor 
startled them with his prayer plan, substantially as be- 
fore stated. 
L_ The plan was taken hold of by the ladies, as if it was 



328 INTEMPERANCE, 

the very thing they had so long been waiting for. No 
time was lost. An organization was formed, petitions 
and pledges prepared, and the very next day the ladies, 
to the number of sixty, marched. They had ten saloons 
and three drug stores to deal with, but before they 
rested, the whole circuit had been made. They were 
treated by the astonished saloon keepers with some 
show of respect, until they came to the concern con- 
ducted by Peter Scheirman and his devoted spouse. 
They were very much enraged with the interference 
with their rights as American citizens under the consti- 
tution, declaration of independence, and star-spangled 
banner, and in broken, and excited English threatened 
the most terrible things if the women came again. But 
they went again and again, without suffering any serious 
consequences, until, at last Peter and his frau saw the 
matter in a different light. The band increased daily 
in numbers and zeal. Bad weather and ill treatment 
had no effect but to inspire them with new energy. In 
a week the procession had more than doubled in size. 
Composed as it was of the best Christian women of the 
town, it began to have a moral power which the liquor 
sellers, sneer or argue as they might, could not stand 
up against. From the first the ladies exhibited that 
rare discrimination and judgment in their movements 
which have characterized the whole campaign. Under 
no circumstances did they allow themselves to lose their 
temper. Generally they avoided all argument with 
stubborn saloon keepers, and asked permission before 
they began a prayer meeting upon the premises. It was 
the usual programme to enter a saloon, explain to the 
proprietor briefly their mission, present him with the 
dealer's pledge, and if he refused to sign it, some one 
led in prayer, a hymn was sung, and he was personally 
entreated to abandon his business. If all failed, these 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 329 

visits were renewed from clay to clay. Entreaties were 
persistently pressed npon him. His customers dwindled 
down to a few of the most wretched description. Per- 
haps a few indictments were secured against him, in case 
any persuasion of that kind should be needed. The 
saloon keeper, finding himself cut off from respectable 
society in the Tillage, with an unprofitable business 
on his hands, and conscious that he was liable at any 
moment to be prosecuted for violation of the law, gener- 
ally concluded, after a few days of resistance, that the 
easiest way out of the whole difficulty was to quit, and 
promise never to sell another drop. 

So great was the success of the Washington ladies 
that, at the end of the first week, half the dram shops 
in the place had been closed up. The men that still 
held out shut their doors in the face of the ladies, and 
tried to escape the influence of the prayers and hymns. 
Offers were made to compromise or sell out. One of the 
so-called druggists, who had begun in trade eight years 
before, with a keg of sour beer and a gallon of whiskey 
bought on credit, and who had built up a profitable busi- 
ness behind jars labelled drugs, offered to give up his 
whole stock to the women for two thousand dollars ; 
but his proposition was not entertained for a moment. 
They kept steadily on, and in four days more every 
saloon keeper in the corporate limits of Washington had 
quit the business, and every druggist signed the pledge 
to sell no liquor for a beverage. The siege had lasted 
eleven days, and in that time eleven saloons and three 
drug stores had capitulated. • It was a remarkable vic- 
tory, and none were more surprised at it than the tem- 
perance workers themselves. They were not expecting 
such speedy results. Old topers and gay gentlemen of 
leisure had suddenly found themselves without their 
customary stimulants or places of resort, and a howl of 



330 INTEMPERANCE, 

anguish went up from them that the good people had 
waited long to hear. 

"Why," one old, gray-haired guzzler was overheard 
to say, — " why, man, you'll ruin your town with your 
nonsense about temperance, shutting up saloons, and all 
that sort of stuff. Look here," he continued, laying the 
dirty forefinger of his left hand impressively upon the 
dirty palm of his right, — " look here ; half the money 
that comes to your town comes through the saloons ; half 
of the people of your town live on that money. Cut off 
that money, and how are they going to live ? Answer 
me that ; how are they going to live ? I've traded in 
this town now goin' on forty year, and I'm blowed if I 
don't trade in Wilmington from this time on — from 
this time on, sir. And there's pleuty more like me." 

It did not enter into his calculation that Wilmington, 
in a few days, was to be as dry as Washington. 

But the work of the women w&s by no means fin- 
ished. Just outside the village limits two establish- 
ments were having a monopoly of the trade. Those 
whose appetite for stimulants could not be subdued, 
were subjected to the necessity of making regular excur- 
sions to these places for their daily drinks. It was felt 
that these must be suppressed, or the work would be 
incomplete. But before they were ready to make an ad- 
vance upon Beck and Sullivan, a new enemy faced them 
in their very midst. One Slater had set up a saloon, and 
avowed his intention to fight the women as long as they 
desired. His lawyer and priest had fortified him with 
the doctrine that whiskey selling was a legitimate busi- 
ness under the laws of the state, and he would be pro- 
jected in it. But no sooner had ho opened his door 
than the women were with him ; and they staid with 
him. Their prayers and persuasions had no effect 
Whatever, and he grew more violent every day. His 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 331 

wickedness became so notorious, that he was commonly 
known as the " John Allen " of Washington. One day 
he bethought himself of the plan of freezing the women 
out. He allowed his fire to go out, opened the windows 
and doors, and wet the floor down with water until it 
stood in pools. It was a bitter cold January day, and 
the atmosphere of the place was almost unendurable. 
But the marshal of the village kept up a huge fire in 
the street ; and the inward fires of zeal made them 
proof against the weather. 

But the ladies were as fertile in devices as their wily 
enemy. Mr. Slater was surprised one morning to find 
before his door a small portable building, hastily con- 
structed of boards, supplied with a stove and seats, and 
looking as though it had come to stay. The side facing 
his saloon was open, and yawned before him like an 
immense mortar, ready to be discharged and blow his 
frail shanty into atoms. But it was, probably, the most 
peaceful engine of war ever constructed. This peculiar 
institution came to be known as the " Tabernacle," pos- 
sibly owing to its resemblance to the structure which 
the Israelites carried with them through the wilderness ; 
and that name has clung to it, wherever it has appeared, 
throughout the whole campaign. Comfortably seated 
in this, the besieging party continued singing and pray- 
ing during the entire day, and until late at night. But 
still the obstinate saloonist held out. It was then dis- 
covered that the building belonged to another party 
than the occupant, and the women resolved to buy the 
building out of his hands. But he threatened to start 
again within two hours in some other locality. At last, 
when all efforts at " moral suasion " had proved ineffec- 
tive, a stronger argument was called into use. A case 
was made out against him under the Adair law, and he 
was brought to terms about the middle of January. 



332 INTEMPERANCE, 

Again the village proper was free. But there still 
remained the beer hall of Charlie Beck, about half a 
mile out, and the wayside saloon of James Sullivan, still 
farther away. To these the women turned their prayer- 
ful attention. Beck was one of those good-natured, yet 
stubborn and excitable members of the German race, 
who look upon beer drinking as an essential element in 
man's social and moral nature, and think everybody a 
Puritan or fanatic who holds different views. His place 
looked more like a country school-house than a saloon. 
It stood back from the road, and was surrounded by 
well-arranged grounds. Carriages were furnished the. 
ladies, free of charge, from the temperance livery stable 
of Collins & Bitzer, and in these the band made daily 
visits to Beck's. After a while Beck, who kept a sharp 
lookout, when he saw the ladies coming, locked his 
door, and fled to his residence close at hand. It was 
during one of these intervals that a Cincinnati reporter 
came reconnoitring about the place. There were no 
women around, but the door was locked, and the cau- 
tious Teuton had fled. After some pouncling at the 
door, the following response was elicited from the resi- 
dence close at hand : — 

" Hello, mein freund ; vat you vant, eh ? " 

The man with a nose for news explained his errand, 
whereupon Beck broke out with, — 

"I got no vitnesses. Dem vimens dey set up a shob 
on me. But you don't bin a 'bitual troonkard, eh? 
No, you don't look like him. Val, goom in, goom in. 
Vat you vant — beer or vine ? I dells you dem vimins 
is shoost awful. Py shinks, dey build a house right in 
de shtreet, und stay mit a man all day singin, und oder 
foolishness. But dey don't git in here once agin, 
already." 

It seems that some one had been trying to entrap the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 333 

cunning beer vender, by coming to buy liquor with the 
intention of going away to swear to it, and thus make 
out a case against him under the Adair law. He was 
naturally, therefore, very suspicious of strangers, and 
was even led to look with distrust upon some of his old 
and faithful customers. These were trying times, and 
his beery brain was racked with anxiety and excite- 
ment. 

" You bin a reborter ? Veil, I shoust likes to see a 
goot man here von der Enguirer von Cincinnati. ' Anod- 
er man yesterday goom mit dem vimins ; I tells zem 
all, * You shoust go ouat ; you got no peesness here.' 
And den he puts his hand so, in his pusom, for a peestol, 
und zay, c You tooch dem vimen, I put you vare you 
don't zell beer any more, already.' " 

During this running fire of broken English, he kept 
moving from one window to the other, expecting every 
moment that the dreaded invaders would heave in sight. 

" Dem fellers in town, dey shkinned out and left me 
alone," he complained bitterly. "But I'll never shtop 
for dem vimin. I sell vine, beer, und cigars, und I 
don't got any trunken men in mein house." 

Accordingly, to show his contempt for the women, 
Beck called in his faithful adherents, together with his 
lawyer, and spent most of the night in a drunken pow- 
wow which went a little beyond any of his former 
achievements in that line. The shouts of the revellers 
could be heard during the night in the distant village, 
and in the morning a reminiscence of the entertainment 
was found in the form of a man dead drunk upon a 
manure pile near the livery stable. 

This gave fresh energy to the women, and they were 
on the war-path early next morning. Seeing them com- 
ing in larger numbers and with more determined mien 
than before, Beck tore off to the town, whence he soon 



334 ESTEMPEKANCE, 

returned with his "gounsel, to see yen he got no more 
any right to his own property." 

The scene grew exciting. The lawyer and reporter 
took up convenient positions on the fence. The ladies 
filled up the door, and extended away to the right. By- 
standers stood in knots a few yards away, while rushing 
wildly about among them all was the excited Beck. 
Fervent prayers were offered for the blessing of God on 
the temperance cause generally, on that place in partic- 
ular, on Beck and his household, — all who loved him, 
— and on the women engaged in the difficult and deli- 
cate task before them. Appropriate hymns were sung 
in the intervals, and the women appeared to be getting 
happy in about the same ratio that Beck was growing 
miserable, when at length, at the conclusion of one of 
the songs, the lawyer slid down from his perch on the 
fence, advanced towards the ladies, and addressed to 
them the following speech : — 

"Now, ladies, I have a word to- say before this per- 
formance goes any farther. Mr. Beck has employed 
me as his attorney. He cannot speak good English, and 
I speak for him here. He is engaged in a legitimate 
business, and you are trespassers on his property and 
rights. If this thing is carried any farther, you will be 
called to account in the court, and I can assure you the 
court will sustain the man. He has talked with you all 
he desires to. He does not want to put you out forci- 
bly ; that would be unmanly, and he does not wish to 
act rudely. But he tells you to go. As his attorney 
I now warn you to desist from any further annoyance." 

Again the ladies sang, — 

"My soul, be on thy guard; 
Ten thousand foes arise," — 

and a fervent prayer was immediately offered for the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 335 

lawyer and his client. It was decided to retire peacea- 
bly from the premises ; but a man who owned the adjoin- 
ing lot was friendly to the cause, and invited them to 
establish their " Tabernacle " there, where it would be 
almost as effective as before the very door of the saloon. 
Then the siege of prayer and song was resumed. Strong 
reflectors were placed so as to illuminate the entrance 
to the beer garden. Guards were constantly on hand, 
till late at night, and few were found bold enough to 
face the lanterns for a glass of beer. Beck's business 
was ruined, and he and his lawyer felt that something 
had to be done. Application was made for a temporary 
injunction, and after two weeks' delay it was granted. 
The Tabernacle disappeared, the daily visits were 
stopped, and peace once more reigned in the neighbor- 
hood of Charlie Beck's beer garden. 

But the law proved a double-edged sword. Hitherto 
the temperance workers had carefully refrained from 
any appeal to legal force ; but when they found it 
employed against them they no longer hesitated. The 
Adair law had been violated by both Beck and Sullivan 
scores of times every week, and it did not take long to 
make out strong cases against them. Sullivan yielded 
at once, and soon after Beck ran up the white flag, and 
surrendered. 

At last Washington Court House was free ! Not a 
drop of spirituous or malt liquor could be bought for 
miles about. It was the first great victory of the cam- 
paign, — the first demonstration of the power of women 
to do what men, with fifty years of legislation, had 
failed to accomplish. The bells of the town rang out 
with joy. Great excitement prevailed, and the chief 
business for a few days was the interchange of congrat- 
ulations. 

But the ladies realized that their work was not done. 



336 INTEMPERANCE, 

The nail so well driven must be clinched. Their cam- 
paign would be but a poor success if the results were 
riot made permanent. Accordingly they devoted their 
energies to the circulation of the different kind of 
pledges, and by continuing the daily mass meetings and 
prayer meetings, endeavored to mould the excited pub- 
lic sentiment into definite and permanent shape. The 
personal pledge was pushed with special industry, and 
nearly the whole population of the place added to the 
roll of names. 

The following are the forms of the various pledges, 
which are substantially the same as those used in other 
towns, throughout the whole movement : — 

" We, the undersigned, druggists of , hereby 

pledge ourselves, upon our honor as business men, that 
from this date we will under no circumstances sell or 
give away, or allow to be sold or given away by any of 
our agents or employes, any alcoholic or intoxicating 
liquors, wine, beer, or ale, except upon satisfactory evi- 
dence that the liquors are to be used for medicinal or 
mechanical purposes." 

" We, the undersigned, property holders in , 

pledge ourselves, upon our honor, not to let or lease our 
premises (or premises for which we are agents) in this 
city, or permit them to be used or occupied, for the sale 
or dispensing in any way of spirituous liquors, wiue, 
beer, or ale, to be used as a beverage." 

" We hereby pledge ourselves, upon our honor, not to 
sell, furnish, or give away, or allow to be sold or given 
away by any agent or employe of ours, either by retail 
or wholesale, any spirituous liquors, wine, beer, or ale, 
except for medicinal or mechanical purposes." 

"We, the undersigned, physicians of -, upon 

our honor as professional men, promise hereby not to 
prescribe the use of spirituous liquors, wine, beer, or ale, 
only in case of absolute necessity." 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 337 

" We, the undersigned, do solemnly promise that we 
will neither make, buy, sell, nor use as a beverage, any 
spirituous or malt liquors, wine, or fermented cider ; and 
that, in all honorable ways, we will discountenance the 
use of the same by others." 

The following is the appeal presented by the ladies to 
the liquor seller : — 

" Knowing, as you do, the fearful effects of intoxicat- 
ing drinks, we, the women of Washington, after earnest 
prayer and deliberation, have decided to appeal to you 
to desist from this ruinous traffic, that our husbands, 
brothers, and especially our sons, be no longer exposed 
to this terrible temptation, and that we may no longer 
see them led into those paths which go down to sin, and 
bring both soul and body to destruction. We appeal to 
the better instincts of your hearts, in the name of deso- 
lated homes, blasted hopes, ruined lives, widowed hearts, 
for the honor of our community, for our prosperity, for 
our happiness, for our good name as a town, in the name 
of God, who will judge you as well as ourselves, for the 
sake of your souls, which are to be saved or lost, we 
beg, we implore you, to cleanse yourselves from this 
heinous sin, and place yourselves in the ranks of those 
who are striving to elevate and ennoble themselves and 
their fellow-men; and to this we ask you to pledge 
yourselves." 

The following resolution, adopted by the Hillsboro' 
ladies, will show what they thought of liquor on their 
own sideboards, or in their mince-pies and puddings : — 

" Whereas it is written, ' Be ye clean thaj; bear the 
vessels of the Lord,' therefore 

" Resolved, That any woman connected with this Vis- 
iting Committee who has wine or brandy, or other alco- 
holic drinks, in her house, to be used for culinary pur- 
poses, be requested to dispose of the same immediately, 
and hereafter to discontinue and discourage such use." 



338 INTEMPERANCE, 

Washington was destined to have one more bout with 
whiskey before it was finally and effectually squelched. 
Some of the old soakers, who began to grow exceedingly 
dry, opened communication with one Charles Passmore, 
of Cincinnati. They represented to him that there was 
a fine opening there for a young man with a few kegs 
of beer and casks of liquor. He would have no record 
by which they could proceed against him under the 
Adair law, and could enjoy an entire monopoly of the 
trade. Viewed from the Cincinnati stand-point, it 
looked absurd that a few praying women could afford 
any serious obstacle to a man with any backbone ; and 
Mr. Passmore came on with his kegs. A room was se- 
cured, and the hopeful saloonist was about tapping his 
first barrel, when he was surprised by a call from a hun- 
dred ladies or more. The alarm-bells had been sounded, 
and the women were ready to march on the instant. 
After a few prayers and songs, the astonished Cincinna- 
tian ventured to inquire how long they proposed to 
stay. 

" That depends entirely upon yourself," was the 
reply. " We have come to stay with you till you 
promise never to sell another glass of liquor in this 
place." 

" That puts a different face on the matter," thought 
Mr. P., and the next day the kegs were re-shipped to 
Cincinnati, never having been opened. Mr. Passmore 
followed them, and from that time Washington has en- 
joyed perfect immunity from saloon-keepers, and lived 
on the virtuous principle of total abstinence. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 339 



CHAPTER XX. 

MARVELLOUS SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. — SUDDEN REDEMPTION OP 
WILMINGTON. — THE EPIDEMIC IN GREENFIELD. — THE FAMOUS SIEGE 
OF VAN PELT AT NEW VIENNA. — HIS WICKEDNESS AND HIS SURREN- 
DER. — THE GLOOMY HISTORY OF MORROW A GOOD TEMPERANCE 
TRACT. — ABOUT SELLING CORN TO DISTILLERS. — A WAYNESFILLE 
PRAYER MEETING REPRODUCED. — A FORTY-NINE DAYS' SIEGE AT 
CORWIN. 

~ Some idea of the marvellous rapidity with which this 
movement began to spread may be had from the fact 
that, within two weeks from the day it was first inaugu- 
rated at Hillsboro', three or four of the leading counties 
in Southern Ohio were taken by storm. As fast as the 
news could be carried to neighboring towns, they caught 
the spirit, and began the crusade of prayer and song. 
The whole section of country seemed ripe for the move- 
ment. Dio Lewis said it was the first soil he had found 
where his temperance plant would grow. The public 
press, which had hitherto contained but meagre reports 
of the movement, said that it was destined to be the 
sensation of the day; special correspondents were de- 
spatched to the scene, and the daily reports crept up 
from paragraphs into columns, and from columns to 
pages. The outside world began to grow interested. 
Those who had regarded the movement as the fleeting 
excitement of an hour now began to see in it a bright 
promise of hope. And as the lovers of temperance and 
order grew interested, the liquor men, from distiller 
down to the lowest whiskey seller* grew alarmed. A 

21 



340 IN TEMPER ANCB, 

contemptuous sneer was all the attention paid to the 
matter for a time ; but as the work went on, and its 
strength became more apparent, the liquor dealers com- 
menced to organize for a desperate resistance. 

Wilmington is the thriving county seat of Clinton 
County, adjoining Fayette. On the 4th of January, ten 
saloons and four drug stores were driving a brisk trade 
in drinks that intoxicate. On the 5th, the respectable 
people of the town came together to talk the matter 
over. They had heard of the wonderful things going on 
in the adjoining county, and decided on the spot to 
adopt the same plan. Two hundred women, the most 
esteemed in the city, fell into the ranks, and among 
them were a number whose remarkable talent and en- 
ergy soon gave them a reputation beyond the limits of 
their own town. Mrs. Eunyan, Mrs. Hadley, and others 
will long be remembered for their faithful service at 
home, and missionary .labors abroad. The same plan 
was pursued as at Washington ; and so vigorously was 
it carried on that within four days all the druggists had 
signed, and at 'the end of ten days the news was tele- 
graphed abroad that every saloon had surrendered, and 
that no liquor could be bought in the town. 

The Saturday which closed the first week was a day 
which the people of Wilmington will not soon forget. 
Crowds from the country had heard of the excitement, 
and flocked in to see what was going on. The streets 
were filled. At ten o'clock the bells announced that the 
ladies had begun their march. They went in eight par- 
ties, numbering from twenty to thirty each. These 
squads relieved each other at the tap of a bell, and thus 
there was a band at every saloon in town during the 
whole day. The solemn regularity and clock-like pre- 
cision which characterized their movements would have 
done credit to a well-drilled military brigade. The air 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS .REMEDY. 341 

was cold and raw, and the streets were filled with slush ; 
but the women seemed perfectly oblivious to such trifles. 
Their zeal was rewarded. At night two more of the 
saloon keepers signed the pledge, and shipped their 
liquors back to Cincinnati, and on Monday and Tuesday 
the remainder followed their example. The same car 
which bore the liquors back was filled with similar 
freight from Washington Court House. 

Ten days of hard fighting, and Wilmington was re- 
deemed from whiskey. And from that day to the pres- 
ent time, there has not been even a keg of beer on tap 
in the city. Some confirmed soakers have, at a great 
outlay of time and money, gone to distant towns, and 
stealthily lugged home long black bottles of " tonics" 
and "blood purifiers," but whiskey selling as a business 
has ceased. A few amusing attempts have been made 
to smuggle into town, under cover of the darkness, a 
solitary half barrel of Cincinnati beer ; but the attempts 
proved wretched failures. In one instance, the keg was 
dropped from the train half a mile out of town, and sur- 
reptitiously hustled off to a haystack. But the temper- 
ance folks got on the scent, and the unfortunate keg was 
hunted down as if it had been so many gallons of pesti- 
lence. Like the ark of the covenant, now it fell into 
the hands of the Philistines, and again adorned the Is- 
raelite camp. Its thirsty guardians had a weary strug- 
gle, and were not rewarded by a single drink. — 

Greenfield, in Highland County, was the next point 
struck by the epidemic. A temperance league was 
formed, on the following platform : — 

" First, That intemperance is the great evil of the 
times. 

" Second, That, it is especially a great evil in Green- 
field; and 

" Third, That it can be eradicated by this method, if 
persistently adhered to." 



342 INTEMPEKANCE, 

One hundred and ten ladies and nearly as many men 
joined the first night. As in the other towns, the league 
was composed of the best people in the place. The first 
thing done was to invite all the liquor sellers to meet a 
committee, and thus give them an opportunity to yield 
gracefully in advance. Out of the fifteen dealers but 
one came, and he was a druggist. Next day, ninety-one 
women formed a solemn phalanx, and marched to the 
saloons. Coming at the end of a series of religious meet- 
ings, the movement in Greenfield took, from the first, a 
deeply religious cast. The most solemn earnestness per- 
vaded the mass meetings at the churches, and seemed 
stamped upon the countenances of the women on the 
street. They were generally older than those engaged 
in the work in Washington and Wilmington, and, from 
the pathetic words and sad, care-worn faces of many of 
them, it was evident that the terrible blight of intem- 
perance had rested heavily upon their own homes. It 
was early determined not to promise any patronage or 
threaten any prosecution for compliance or refusal, but 
simply to appeal to the better nature of the saloon 
keeper, and trust to the power of prayer to move him. 

On the 22d of January, it was reported that one third 
of the liquor dealers had signed the pledge. Rev. A. C. 
Hirst, fresh from the battle at Washington, came down 
to exhort and encourage. Crowded mass meetings were 
held every evening in the churches, and reports of the 
day's proceedings were read." These reports of the sec- 
retary, Miss Kate Dwyer, so well reflect the spirit of 
love and deep devotion with which the work was carried 
on, that we append the following extract : — 

" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; 
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim- 
ple. Knowing that all our wisdom would indeed be of 
God, and that the souls of all men are in his hands, we 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 343 

took up our work this morning again. It seemed that 
the very presence of the Lord could be felt as we walked 
softly towards the house of Mr. B. Devout prayers 
were offered, and songs were sung, then the pledge pre- 
sented, but still the prayers and entreaties of God's peo- 
ple in his behalf were unsuccessful. As slowly and sol- 
emnly the procession proceeded from there to Mr. H.'s. 
He, too, heeded not the appeal. Again finding Mr. P.'s 
door locked, we made known the requests of our hearts 
to God in prayer and song from the sidewalk. From 
there we directed our steps to the saloon of Mr. K. He 
professes to sell liquor while the laws of the land give 
the license. God's will and laws are higher than those 
of man, and he can enforce them. The next place vis- 
ited was Mr. C.'s drug store. He professed to be un- 
moved, either temporally or spiritually. The Lord look- 
eth from heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of men ; he 
fashioneth their hearts alike ; he considereth all their 
works. Our prayer is, that God may touch that heart 
with the finger of his love, and cause it to melt like wax 
before the fire. 

" In the afternoon we visited Mr. S.'s establishment. 
He being absent, we presented our pledge to his clerk, 
and held devotional exercises ; pledge unsigned. After 
that we went to both the saloons of Mr. C. He is also 
absent from town, but those in his employ refused the 
pledge. From there we returned to the church, trusting 
in God for the fruit of our day's labor. On entering we 
found glad tidings awaiting us — a druggist's pledge, 
with the signature of N. Squier. O, how great is thy 
goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, 
which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee ! 
Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, 
all ye that hope in the Lord." 

On the 6th of February, after nearly a month of un- 



344 INTEMPERANCE, 

ceasing work, the ladies resolved to celebrate their vic- 
tories in a grand thanksgiving jubilee. H. Thane Miller 
and W. H. Doane, of Cincinnati, and all other sympa- 
thizers, were invited to be present. Business was sus- 
pended, and the schools dismissed. The cause for the 
rejoicing was summed up in the following brief report, 
made at the opening of the meeting : — 

Three drug stores signed the druggists' pledge. 
Five saloons signed the dealers' pledge. 
Two thousand one hundred and ninety-eight persons 
signed the personal pledge. 

One of the unsubdued, a druggist named C. K. Clin- 
ton, found himself getting a notoriety almost equal to 
that of Slater or Dunn. His drug store was nothing 
more than a saloon in disguise. He received the ladies 
with uniform urbanity, but never showed the least dis- 
position to relent. It was his custom to go down to his 
" den of iniquity " (as he proudly called it) in the morn- 
ing, sweep out, build a good fire, arrange the chairs in 
order, and sit down with his paper till the " women 
came." That ceremony over, he was ready to go about 
his accustomed business in the old way. Although he 
never allowed himself to appear disturbed, the words 
of the kind-hearted and soft-spoken ladies sometimes 
reached a tender spot. 

" I thought I had sand enough in my craw," he con- 
fessed to a friend, " to stand anything ; but I'll be con- 
founded if the prayers of these women don't somehow 
take hold of a fellow. It's enough to sink a wooden 
man." 

The " sand in his craw " was not sufficient to enable 
him to withstand those earnest prayers much longer. 
He held out until his companions dropped off one by 
one ; and when he found himself at last alone, the focus 



• ; ■ l < 




ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 347 

of the prayers and entreaties of the whole female com- 
munity, and the sole object of daily mass meetings, he 
ceased his stubborn resistance, and Greenfield was added 
to the shining list of the emancipated. But while these 
things were going on at Greenfield, the eyes of the 
whole country began to be turned on New Vienna, a 
small railroad town a few miles west. The story of New 
Vienna is the story of Van Pelt, who was destined to 
play so important a part in the history of the movement 
in Ohio. John Calvin Van Pelt, the wickedest man in 
Ohio, soon became a familiar character to the public. 
Near the depot was a forbidding-looking one-story struc- 
ture, appropriately known as the "Dead Fall," and pre- 
sided over by Van Pelt, a tall, solidly built man, with a 
red nose and the head of a prize-fighter. He had for- 
merly served the public in the capacity of an oyster 
dealer on Sixth Street, Cincinnati, at which time he be- 
came identified with the interests of the cockpit, and 
won considerable notoriety for his bull-dog pluck and 
strength of will in any undertaking in which he em- 
barked. He possessed a sort of humor and sociability 
which made him a popular leader among his companions 
at New Vienna. 

The league was formed in the usual way, and, after 
visiting the drug stores, the ladies directed their steps 
toward the "Dead Fall." Van Pelt seemed infuriated. 
He threatened, if they came to his saloon again, to hang, 
draw, and quarter them. The next day, one of his win- 
dows was decorated with flasks filled with whiskey. 
Across the other one was an axe, covered with blood. 
Over the door were suspended empty flasks, and near 
them a large jug, branded "Brady's Family Bitters." 
Over all floated a black flag. As if this array was not 
sufficiently dramatic, he could be seen within, brandish- 
ing a club, and defying the temperance band, at the risk 
of their lives, to enter. 



348 INTEMPERANCE, 

But even these bloodthirsty demonstrations had no 
effect upon the ladies. Next day they went, about fifty 
in number, entered his saloon, and began their usual de- 
votions. About two hundred men were outside, expect- 
ing some attempt at violence. A lady began in prayer, 
and was just about praying that the heart of the' saloon 
keeper might be baptized with the Holy Ghost, when 
Van Pelt seized a bucket of dirty water. 

" G— d d— n you," said he, " I'll baptize you ! " And 
with this he threw the contents against the ceiling 
overhead, from which it came pouring down upon the 
kneeling ladies. They stood, however, heroically to 
their post, and it was not until drenched with dirty 
slops and beer that they retreated to the outside; 

The crowd surrounding the place were enraged, and 
were only prevented by the intercession of the ladies 
from mobbing the ruffian. Inhuman as he was, the 
women had faith to believe they could conquer him 
without violence, or even law. But the fathers and 
husbands of those insulted were not so tender in their 
sentiments, and Van Pelt was arrested and sent to jail. 
There he languished for several days, unable to find 
bail. His brother, also a desperate character, did the 
honors at the saloon, and for a day or two allowed the 
women to enter, and carry on their devotional exercises. 
On the third day, however, he shut them out, and they 
again patiently went on with their prayers on the walk 
outside. 

Meanwhile Van Pelt found bail, and was released 
from the calaboose, His week's imprisonment seemed 
only to have made him the more bitter and determined. 
He had the boldness to attend the meetings of the ladies 
in the Friends' church, and argue the case with them 
publicly. 

" Why did the Lord put the stimulant in the corn and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BE^IEDY. 349 

grape, if it was not for the use of man ? What would 
the farmer get for his grain, if whiskey was not made 
and sold ? " These and like arguments, which he had 
carefully studied up, he hurled at the heads of the tem- 
perance people, and, with his quick wit, proved quite a 
formidable disputant for the logicians of the other party 
to encounter. At length he gave evidence of a growing 
weakness in the knees by repeated propositions to sell 
out. His first price was five hundred dollars ; then he 
fell to three hundred, and at last to ninety-five, tljat 
being the amount expended by him in lawyers' fees, &c. 
On payment of this sum, he was to quit the town for- 
ever. It was a tempting inducement, and many were 
for taking him up. A meeting was called to consider 
the matter. The debate naturally ran back to the beer 
slops indignity. 

" He may be glad he got off with his life. In any 
other town he would mighty quick go to try the realities 
of another world ; but we are a peaceable people, and 
only ask him to go while he can go safe. We don't owe 
him anything," &c. This was the argument of Mr. 
Amberg. 

" I was the one who got the most of it," said one of 
the ladies ; " but I have forgiven him, and continue to 
pray that I may have no hard feelings against him ; and 
though I maintain we don't owe him a cent, yet I am 
willing to make him a small present just for good will." 

These two arguments illustrate very well the different 
spirit entertained by the men and by the women on the 
same subject. 

On the 26th, Yan Pelt proved his indisputable claim 
to the title of the wickedest man in Ohio. He put a 
cap on the climax of his wickedness. When the ladies 
called at his saloon, as usual, he met them at the door, 
and told them they might come in and pray on one con- 



350 INTEMPERANCE, 

dition. That was, that they allow him to make every 
other prayer. In amazement the women said yes, and 
the farce began. After some lady had conclnded the 
first prayer, Van Pelt began a long and blasphemous 
harangue in the form of a prayer. It is to be regretted 
that no reporter was on the spot to preserve the curi- 
osity to the world. He asked the Lord to have mercy 
on the women, whom he classed with the brutes, and 
to teach them wisdom and understanding. Woman, he 
said, first . caused man to sin, and there was great need 
for prayer in their behalf. He said the Lord operated 
the first distillery ; or, at least, made the first wine, and 
he (Yan Pelt) was but following the Lord's example, 
&c, &c. 

Before the services were ended he had made three 
long prayers of this description. The women were al- 
most speechless with astonishment, half expecting that 
the hardened wretch would be struck dumb on the spot. 
But this was only the darkness before day. One week 
from that time Van Pelt had surrendered, and, like Saul 
of Tarsus, took up the cause he had fought so long, and 
became one of its most shining apostles. 

The day before the surrender was dark and drizzling. 
All day long the women stood guard before the door, 
changing at intervals. In the evening meeting the sec- 
retary read out the names of all who had entered Van 
Pelt's place during the day. A determination was 
evinced to fight it out on the line already begun. Next 
morning the ladies met pronrptly at eight o'clock, and 
proceeded to the " Dead Fall." Van Pelt met them at 
the door, and told them if they would go away and come 
again at two o'clock he would give them his final de- 
cision. It was noised abroad that Van Pelt was going 
to surrender. At noon the bells were set to ringing, and 
boys went through the streets with hand-bells, crying, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 853 

" Everybody meet at Van Pelt's saloon at two o'clock, 
and hear his decision ! " People closed up their places 
of business, and rushed from all parts of the town 
towards the depot. An immense crowd of men and 
women assembled before the scene of so many prayers 
and songs. Each looked at the other, and wondered 
what was going to come next. 

After singing and prayer by the ladies, Van Pelt 
came to the door, and in a few remarks full of feeling, 
made a complete surrender of his stock and fixtures to 
the cause. He said he yielded not to law or force, but 
to the labors of love of the women. He then requested 
all the men, except the ministers, to retire beyond the 
railroad track, and called upon Rev. D. Hill and Rev. 
H. H. Whitter to roll out the barrels. There was one 
barrel of whiskey, another of cider, and a keg of beer. 

Van Pelt then seized an axe, and stepping forward, 
held it up, crying, — 

" This is the same weapon I used to terrify the ladies. 
I now use it to sacrifice that which I fear has ruined 
many souls.". So saying, he stove in the heads of the 
barrels, and the liquors gurgled out into the gutters. 

Prayer was offered, a hymn sung, and Van Pelt made 
a few more remarks, saying, — 

" Ladies, I now promise you to never sell or drink 
another drop of whiskey as long as I live, and also prom- 
ise to work with you in the cause with as much zeal as 
I have worked against you." He also remarked that he 
hoped the women of the United States would never 
cease until every drop of whiskey was • emptied upon 
the ground, as his was. 

Just then the train from Cincinnati arrived. The 
crowd set up a deafening cheer ; a photographist caught 
the scene, and preserved it to posterity; the women 
gathered around Van Pelt, shaking his hands and con- 



354 ISTEMPEKANCE, 

gratulating him, and the glad news spread through the 
town, creating great excitement. 

In the evening a thanksgiving meeting was held in 
the Christian church, and Van Pelt spoke. He was 
humble in his manner, and made a good impression on 
the audience. He had felt, he said, for some days, 
deep convictions that he was doing a mean business, 
but had used every argument he could to sustain him- 
self — had tried to argue with the ladies, and get the 
best of the argument ; it was not arguments, but their 
prayers and suffering that had touched his heart. No 
man or set of men would suffer and endure what the 
ladies had endured in this work:. He referred to his 
saloon as a low doggery, saying, " Yes, I'll call it a low 
doggery, for no man can keep a high one." He had 
often taken the last ten cents from a man for whiskey 
when he knew the money had been earned by his wife 
or child. Every man who sells whiskey does this. Little 
faces thus robbed had often appealed to his heart with 
greater force than any words of man. He was now de- 
termined to quit this business forever, and throw his 
strength on the other side of the question. He thought 
places of innocent amusement and resort ought to be 
established, to entertain those who seek company at 
saloons. He believed this emphatically a ladies' work. 
He believed God had led them into this work. He 
wanted to encourage them to go on till the country is 
freed from the greatest curse of the land. He had been 
thinking for several days that perhaps the great God 
who overrules all had allowed him to go into that low 
business, that he might see the great iniquity, and be 
better able to influence others to quit the terrible busi- 
ness. 

In another week Van Pelt was in the field as a tem- 
perance lecturer ! 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 355 

One of th,e most hopeless places, to all appearances, 
in Ohio, was Morrow, a small railroad town about forty 
miles from Cincinnati, on the Little Miami road. The 
wickedness of Morrow had passed into a proverb. The 
place seemed whiskey-ridden, and the cause of its deso- 
lation was visible at almost every turn. The correspond- 
ent of a Cincinnati paper, who visited the place soon after 
the temperance excitement had broken out, summed up 
the situation graphically as follows : — 

"Population, eleven hundred; chinking places, fif- 
teen ; increase of population in ten years, two hundred 
persons ; increase of municipal taxation, one hundred 
and thirty per cent. ; decline in business reported at 
twenty-five per cent. ; manufactures nothing, and no 
increase in the value of property ; eighteen vacant dwell- 
ing-houses, and numbers of the best citizens removed. 
Such are the facts given me by the ' old and reliable.' 
Verily it was time for the law or the gospel to do some- 
thing. The place has a beautiful and romantic site. 
The}' have three railroads, and expect connection soon 
with a trunk line to the east. On one side is the river, 
and on the other the beautiful hill, with hundreds of 
sites for palatial residences. In the neighborhood is 
good fishing and hunting, and all around is scenery un- 
surpassed in the State of Ohio. Apparently this is just 
the place for a favorite summer resort. 

" Twenty-five years ago Morrow had aspirations. 
There were, and are, unsurpassed facilities for manufac- 
turing — still unimproved. Three large hotels at that 
time were filled most of the summer with families and 
visitors from Cincinnati. The society was good ; church, 
school, and lyceum were thoroughly organized; and, 
besides the manufacturing interests which were being 
established, the place expected to become a city of ele- 
gant retired country seats. Somehow the saloons got 



356 INTEMPERANCE, 

the start, the manufacturers took the alarm, the ex- 
pected good families did not come, and many that were 
here moved away. If the place has improved in twenty 
years, that fact is not apparent to the naked eye. Still 
there are many good families in Morrow. They have 
borne the demoralization and tyranny of the whiskey 
power until it has become a question of life and. death 
with them ; and they have entered on this struggle in 
the spirit in which patriots fight for their homes, feeling 
that unless they conquer, they must emigrate. It is not 
a question of philanthropy alone, and other people's 
good, here, as in some places; they must conquer or 
die." 

The immediate source of the contagion was Wilming- 
ton. Mrs. Runyan, the wife of the Methodist minister 
at Wilmington, and Mrs. Hadley, a soft-spoken but de- 
termined Quaker lady, came over from that place, told 
the ladies of Morrow how a few days of energetic work 
had cleared all the saloons out of Wilmington, and 
offered their services. They were gratefully accepted. 
Over fifty women of Morrow rallied around them, and 
the campaign began in earnest. This resolute band 
met at ten o'clock in the morning in the Methodist 
church, and started out on their mission of love, while 
the men remained behind to pray and consult. Lewis 
Fairchild, an aged warrior in the temperance cause, who 
had withstood the rebuffs and rotten eggs of two or 
three generations of rum sellers, was chairman of the 
league, and was always on hand with encouragement 
and advice. 

There were some hard cases to treat among the sa- 
loonists. Looskin was going to shoot the first woman 
who crossed his threshold. Opes and Goepper posted 
up conspicuous notices, " No singing and praying women 
allowed here." Weingartner would sell out if they 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 357 

would pay him six hundred dollars for a few old chairs, 
tables, and empty bottles. Mrs. Krumpf, a German 
woman across the river, could " sprech kein English." 
Martin Fath, when he saw the women coming, tempo- 
rarily turned his saloon into a tailor's shop, and worked 
away at his sewing machine for dear life. Goepper, 
Briesah, and Kebbel locked them out. There was little 
to encourage the ladies in their first two or three 
rounds. 

One of the most discouraging cases to deal with was 
Henry Scheide. He was a young German of good dis- 
position and friendly manners. He had received a good 
education in the Cincinnati schools, having been de- 
signed, it is said, for the ministry. Then he was a clerk 
in a dry goods store in the city. But the saloon busi- 
ness promised greater profits, and he removed to Mor- 
row, where he established the "respectable saloon " of 
the place. He allowed no drunkards about him, and 
conducted his establishment with such skill that it 
became the popular resort for the young men of the 
town and surrounding country. Therefore it was that 
Scheide's was considered by the women the flowery 
path that led to the bad place. 

The following rambling talk which Scheide confided 
to the bosom of a Cincinnati reporter will serve to illus- 
trate the views of his class quite generally : — 

" We'll worry 'em some, though I'm the only one 
that lets the ladies in. It don't bother me much ; they 
only sing and pray, and stay about half an hour. I'll 
open every time they come, shutting doors on nobody. 
There's no rowdies come into this place. Those ladies 
don't understand it. They have a foolish prejudice 
about this business. Now I can run this establishment 
just as nice as a dry goods store, and I do. . . . ' O, if 
they'd stay all day, I'd soon stop that. This is my busi- 



358 INTEMPEKANCE, 

ness, and I won't let anybody interfere with it. There's 
a state law against selling by the drink, but nobody 
pays any attention to it. We run that risk. No man 
but a low sneak, who has a spite against you, will drink 
in your house, and then go and make complaint against 
you. The Council won't make any order here. They're 
men of too much sense. I tell you a town must have 
a decent saloon, or it won't prosper. All the farmers 
nearly in the country, when they go to sell their grain 
or buy goods, are going where they can get a dram. 
They will have their beer or ale. Stop the sale here, 
and two thirds of our travel leaves us. Maybe, though, 
if no town had saloons, it might make it even ; but the 
others will have them. 

" . . . Women get along in all these towns because 
they have no opposition. Mayor and officers and law- 
yers were all with them, because it was a new thing. 
But here we've got some rights. Our lawyers are with 
us. It's politics that's really at the bottom of this thing. 
It's been tried here. The Methodists and temperance 
men are trying to get up a ticket of their own, and can't 
make it win." 

The ladies from the first acted on the rigid principle 
of no compromise. They would pay no man for his 
liquors. The basis of negotiations must be unconditional 
surrender, except in cases where families were in indi- 
gent circumstances. Then, if the saloon keeper made 
a complete sacrifice, they would make every effort to 
relieve him from want, and start him in some more 
honest calling. 

The corn question was sprung upon the morning 
meeting one day quite suddenly, and proved a perplex- 
ing subject to wrestle with. The saloon keepers sent a 
committee to say that Mr. Ludlum, an active worker in 
the temperance cause, was then loading a car with corn 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 359 

for a distillery.- If the women allowed that thing to be 
done, they need expect no more concessions from the 
liquor dealers. It was like a bomb in the camp at first ; 
but presently it was explained that Mr. Ludlum did not 
sell his corn to a distillery, but to commission men, over 
whom he had no control. If it eventually found its 
way into whiskey, the fault could not be laid at his 
door. However, if this seemed an inconsistent course, 
he was ready to give up the whole business of dealing 
in corn. Then the farmer would have to give up rais- 
ing, and so on through all branches of trade. The mat- 
ter was dropped as a side issue, and a ruse of the, enemy 
to set the temperance folks by the ears. 

And so the campaign went on. The women were 
out every day, in constantly increasing numbers. En- 
thusiastic mass meetings were held every night. Almost 
every man, woman, and child in the vicinity, not engaged 
in the liquor business, signed the total abstinence pledge. 
One after another the saloon keepers gathered their 
traps about them and silently stole away, until the num- 
ber was reduced to three or four. 

One of these was Max Goepper, a brother of the 
wealthy Cincinnati brewer, who kept a low place close 
by the depot. To this the women devoted their atten- 
tion, and passengers on the Little Miami trains might 
see them at almost any hour, from six in the morning 
until ten at night, kneeling on the steps before the 
door with their piteous faces upturned, and pleading 
with the Almighty to have mercy upon that saloon 
keeper, and change his . heart. Just within the door 
stood Goepper, with a cigar in his mouth and a sar- 
donic grin on his face, winking at the train men, or at 
some old customer whom he saw in the crowd. In the 
window hung a caricature of a dead man being carried 
off on a bier, and underneath the inscription, " This 

22 



360 INTEMPERANCE, 

man was prayed to death." It was a sight that brought 
tears to the eyes of many a traveller, at the same time 
that it provoked a smile. 

At last, on a morning early in March, the ladies came 
as usual, and found only the empty shell of the old 
shanfy. Goepper and his effects had disappeared. 
Scheide, who had some time before obtained an injunc- 
tion* against one hundred and sixteen of the women, 
together with Dio Lewis and Van Pelt, forbidding them 
to pray near his premises, had also fled, and only two 
insignificant doggeries were left. The bells were rung 
loud and long, and the patient and persistent workers 
wept for joy. It was one of the most signal victories of 
the campaign. 

A few miles farther up the Little Miami River lies 
Waynesville, a quiet, comfortable village of strong Qua- 
ker proclivities. Across the stream is a collection of 
houses grouped about the railroad station, and named 
Corwiu, after the illustrious governor and departed 
statesman of Ohio. This was the scene of perhaps the 
most protracted siege of the whole campaign. "Waynes- 
ville is the centre of a group of villages in "Warren 
County that dot the country round about within a radius 
of ten miles ; and for generations it has been the cus- 
tom of the inhabitants of those places, and of the sur- 
rounding farmers, to bring in their jugs periodically and 
have them replenished. On this trade, and the little 
used for home consumption, two saloons in "Waynesville 
and one in Corwin were making a very good thing of it 
when the temperance crusade came along. The first 
intimation of the coming storm was a petition largely 
signed by citizens, and sent in to the village Council for 
an ale and beer and tippling-house ordinance. The 

* The history of this and other injunction cases is detailed at length in a 
succeeding chapter. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 361 

ordinance passed, but the ladies had heard of the moral 
achievements in neighboring towns, and proposed to 
close up the saloons without the aid of the law. At 
this juncture there was printed and circulated about 
town the following literary gem : — 

Notice. As it has come to my hearing that there is 
a rumor in circulation that some of the ladies in and 
about Waynesville, O., are about to visit my grocery 
on Saturday, the 17th inst., for the purpose of holding 
a prayer meeting, I advise all the ladies concerned in 
the movement to keep clear of my grocery, and to keep 
within the bounds of the law, as my grocery is not a 
place of worship. 

Timothy Ldddy. 

Waynesville, 0., Jan. 16, 1874. 

The challenge was- accepted, and within a day or two 
the women were praying in Mr. Liddy's "grocery." 
The other saloon, kept by William F. Roper, also re- 
ceived a full share of attention. The band went daily. 
Sometimes they were admitted, and as often locked out, 
when they held their devotions on the pavement in 
front. But after this plan had been operating a while, 
with no visible results, another was adopted. The 
women were divided into small squads, who went in 
succession to the saloons, thus keeping up a constant 
guard. But the enemy made a flank movement, and 
shut out one and all. Then things began to get warm. 
The women stuck by their erring brethren outside of 
the door, and when the weather was inclement, a' cov- 
ered carriage was drawn up in front for their use. It 
happened that the two saloons were on diagonally oppo- 
site corners, while on a third corner was a vacant room, 
which was turned over to the use of the ladies. It was 



362 INTEMPERANCE, 

temporarily fitted up with a stove and chairs, and the 
ladies came by detachments day after day, as to an ad- 
vance picket post, and watched the two saloons. A 
book was kept in which was registered the name of every 
man entering either place. The result was a sudden 
and remarkable falling off in the patronage of those here- 
tofore prosperous establishments. One of the pickets on 
duty was asked how long they intended to keep up the 
watch. 

" Until the saloons are closed up for good," was her 
decided reply. 

" But, then, won't they open again as soon as you 
quit?" 

" If they do, we will commence the watch again. We 
will keep the war up till we see the end of whiskey 
here." 

The praying visits, however, were not wholly sus- 
pended. The following report of one of these meetings, 
taken on the spot, will serve to show the spirit in which 
such exercises were almost everywhere conducted. The 
band was composed largely of Quakeresses — Hicksite 
and Orthodox promiscuously mingled. The scene is 
Roper's saloon. The band having solemnly entered the 
room, a hand is extended to Roper, and a kindly voice 
inquires, "How's thee to-day, brother?" Then all 
kneel, and after a few moments' silence an earnest, 
pleading voice is raised in prayer. 

" Almighty God, thou knowest the barrier in the case 
of this man. Thou alone knowest the key that may 
unlock his heart. For his own sake, for Christ's sake, 
wilt thou not turn him from his present course ? Thou 
hast all things to give ; he has nothing to lose. . . . Lord, 
show mercy to our fathers, our husbands, our brothers, 
our sons, who may be in danger of the blight of intern- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 363 

perance. Bless the homes and the hearts that are 
already desolated by its effects. Take thou the control 
of these weak efforts of ours, and direct us to glorious 
success." 

Then in a low voice was sung : 

" Watchman, tell us of the night, 
What its signs of promise are." 

And after another prayer, the hymn — 

" My faith looks up to Thee, 
Thou Lamb of Calvary." 

Then from the 25th and 26th chapters of Isaiah were 
read the words — 

" And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; 
we have waited for him, and he will save us. . . . 

"And he shall bring down their pride, together with 
the spoils of their hands. 

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is 
stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye 
in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlast- 
ing strength." 

The protracted siege, already referred to, was at the 
grocery saloon of Tom Franey, at Corwin. Franey was 
noted for his politeness, and when the^ ladies came over 
from Waynesville, to plead and pray with him, he sev- 
eral times ordered his team hitched to an omnibus to 
take them back. At last his suavity began to give place 
to coldness, and he commenced making a careful calcu- 
lation of the damage done to his valuable business, with 
the announced intention of suing the society, or the 
husbands of the ladies, for the amount. But a little 
legal advice probably discouraged him from that under- 
taking, and he thereafter shut his fair visitors out. But 



364 intemperance,* 

the women never left him. Day after day, for forty-nine 
consecutive days, the siege was kept up, and they were 
finally rewarded with an unconditional surrender. 

No longer the rural jugs and bottles came in to 
Waynesville for replenishment. No more drunken men 
and boys stagger through the streets. Quakers sing 
hymns ; all denominations mingle freely, and the era of 
good fellowship prevails. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 365 



CHAPTER XXI. 

REVIEW OF THE LEGAL CASES. — WERE THE WOMEN TRESPASSERS ON 
PRIVATE RIGHTS ? — THE CELEBRATED DUNN SUIT. — THE WARNING, 
THE TABERNACLE, AND THE INJUNCTION. — OTHER FUTILE EFFORTS 
TO ENJOIN THE WOMEN. — THE SCHEIDE INJUNCTION, AND HOW IT 
WAS DISSOLVED. — LEGAL PROSECUTIONS AT LEBANON. — A COMPARI- 
SON OF THE LAW AND GOSPEL METHODS. 

The reader cannot have failed to observe how wholly 
the success of the women was due to love. They con- 
ducted the warfare on the gospel method of moral per- 
suasion, instead of force. It was whiskey selling they 
were fighting against, and not the whiskey seller. Many 
a hardened saloon keeper, with tearful eyes, has con- 
fessed that it was about the first time he ever thought 
anybody cared for him, when the best Christian women 
of the town took him kindly by the hand, and talked 
to him as to a brother. If men had come about his 
premises, and in their bungling way attempted to drive 
him out of his business, he would have had his coat off 
for a fight in an instant. If the law had been used to 
suppress him, he would have united all the money and 
stubbornness of the liquor interests in resistance. But 
when a band of weak women, whom he knew as the wives 
and mothers of the best citizens, came, with tender words 
and earnest prayers, it was an enemy he hardly knew how 
to fight. . In these trying circumstances, it was very rare 
that one of the band ever lost her temper ; and it was 
tins very principle of meekness and good nature that 



366 INTEMPERANCE, 

disarmed opposition and gave the women their extraor- 
dinary power. 

" I tell you, my young friend," said a Hillsboro' mer- 
chant to a reporter, " the women have more. power in 
favor of temperance, ten times over, than the men. 
They are free from political entanglements. They don't 
have to vote for anybody for office, and they ask nobody 
to vote for them. So they can exert their moral power 
without hinderance. We are hampered in business, and 
politics ; they work for the pure love of humanity. A 
hundred women can do more good for a moral reform 
than ten thousand voters. We can only make laws, but 
they can touch the heart. It must be a hard-hearted man 
who can stand in his saloon and resist the pleadings of a 
good old mother whose son has been ruined by liquor, 
when she comes with tears in her eyes and prayer on her 
lips. Yes, sir, if the women in each town would take 
hold as they have done here, Ohio could be made a tem- 
perance state in six months." 

Wherever this movement was begun and carried for- 
ward to any success, it was the avowed wish of the cru- 
saders to avoid, as far as possible, any resort to law. A 
lady in Greenfield summed up this idea in the following 
words : — 

" We intend to cure this disease by a better treatment, 
that shall not leave a- drug disease in the system. Ex- 
tirpation by law would leave hatreds and jealousies in 
the community ; but prayer and good words leave no 
sting behind. We don't intend to try legal remedies 
till prayer and good words are exhausted, and love has 
lost its power ; and we don't intend that shall be until 
the whole work is accomplished." 

There were extraordinary cases, however, where legal 
persuasion was found a very convenient and effective 
means of bringing incorrigible persons to terms. Again, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 367 

the law was invoked, in some instances, by the whiskey 
sellers, and the peace-loving ladies were compelled to 
meet their opponents with the same weapons. Some of 
these cases were of snch interest, and had so important 
a bearing on the subsequent progress of the movement, 
that we devote this chapter to a review of the principal 
ones. ; : 

It early became a question how far these women were 
invading the private rights of property. Saloon keepers 
claimed that theirs was a legitimate business, recognized 
by the laws of the state and of the nation, and that the 
praying women were violating the law of. trespass, and 
laying themselves liable to damages. On the other 
hand, it was a well-known fact that the law was violated 
daily in almost every saloon, and there were few whiskey 
dealers who felt themselves legally clean enough to throw 
the first stone. 

Dunn, the notorious Hillsboro' druggist, was one of 
these. In a preceding chapter we left the ladies pray- 
ing on the steps before his door. Within, he and his 
clerk were sitting about the stove, waiting for the few 
whiskey customers still left him : — a remnant of his once 
flourishing business. The front door was locked to shut 
out the ladies, and the back entrance was carefully 
watched lest he might sometimes entertain spies una- 
wares. 

At lengthy on the morning of the 31st of January, the 
following " Notice to the Ladies of Hillsboro' " was 
found distributed about town, and posted up in con- 
spicuous places : — 

" Whereas many of you, among whom are Mes- 
dames Wm. Scott, Wm. Trimble, Sams, W. O. Collins, 
J. M. Boyd, A. Evans, Reece Griffith, Jonah Langley, 
Wm. Hoyt, Caroline Miller, Wash. Doggett, W. P. 
Bernard, Misses Marian Stewart, Rachel Conrad, Sallie 



368 INTEMPERANCE, 

Stevenson, Maggie Bowles, Clara Rhodes, Annie Wilson, 
Grace Gardner, Jennie Harris, Emma Grand-Girard, 
Mollie Van Winkle, Emily Grand-Girard, Libbey Kirby, 
Ella Dill, Laura Rockhold, Eddy, Alice Speese, Kate 
Trimble, Alice Boardman and sister [fifty more names 
follow], who are aided by the following named gentle- 
men : Messrs. E. L. Ferris, H. S. Fuller ton, Samuel 
Amen, Asa Haynes, J. J. Brown, J. S. Black, W. C. 
Barry, E. Carson, Joseph Glascock, Wm. Scott, Thomas 
Barry, S. E. Hibben & Son, T. C. Lytle, R. S. Evans, L. 
McKibben, R. Griffiths, J. L. Boardman, John Cowgill, 
Lewis Ambrose, H. Scarborough, Wm. Ambrose, Wash. 
Doggett, H. Swearingen, Rev. E. Grand-Girard, and 
many others ; 

" And who, although not directly participating in your 
daily proceedings, are, nevertheless, counselling and ad- 
vising you in your unlawful proceedings by subscriptions 
of money, and encouragement in the commission of daily 
trespasses upon my property since the 24th day of De- 
cembei last, by reason of which my legitimate business 
has been obstructed, my feelings outraged, and my pro- 
fession and occupation sought to be rendered odious, by 
reason of which I have suffered great pecuniary damage 
and injury. Therefore, you and each of you, together 
with your husbands (or such as may have them), and 
the persons who are thus aiding ypu with their money, 
encouragement, and advice in your unlawful proceed- 
ings, are hereby notified that I cannot, nor will not, 
longer submit to your daily trespasses on my property, 
and injury to my business. 

" While I am willing to excuse your action in the 
past, I cannot submit to such outrages in the future. 
Cherishiug no unkind hostility towards any one, but en- 
tertaining the highest regard for the ladies of Hillsboro', 
distinguished heretofore, as they have been, for their 
courtesy, refinement, and Christian virtues, I feel ex- 
tremely reluctant to have to appeal to the law for pro- 
tection against their riotous and unlawful acts. 

" You are therefore hereby further notified that if 
such action and trespasses are repeated, I shall apply to 
the laws of the state for redress and damages for the 



ITS ASPECTS AND ITS BEMEDY. 369 

injuries occasioned by reason of the practices of which I 
complain. 

" All others aiding or encouraging you, by means of 
money or otherwise, are also notified that I shall hold 
them responsible for such advice and encouragement. 
" Yours, respectfully, 

« W. H. H. Dunn." 

This produced a great sensation. Some thought he 
would prosecute ; others were sure that he would not. 
When Mr. Dunn reached his own store that morning, he 
found the wives of the mayor and Methodist minister — 
Mrs. Doggett and Mrs. Conden — already there to talk 
the matter over. They argued and pleaded with him 
for nearly an hour ; but all the satisfaction they got was 
the following : — 

" I am doing a legitimate business, according to the 
laws of Ohio and all well-recognized rules of morality. 
I am not a Heathen Chinee, that you need to come and 
pray with me. I tell you again and again, in the pres- 
ence of these gentlemen, that I don't want you to pray 
in my house, or come into it except on business. I have 
treated you as well as I know how, until my patience is 
worn out. I now tell you again to leave, and I will 
prosecute all who interfere with my business," &c. 

At nine o'clock on the same morning, a large number 
of temperance people came together at the church, and 
by exchanging views found that they were not scared so 
badly, after all, by the proclamation. It was resolved 
to go on with the work ; and in order to facilitate mat- 
ters, it was decided to erect a " tabernacle, " on the Wash- 
ington Court House plan, already described. The con- 
sent of the mayor was obtained, and in less than an 
hour a score of willing hands were hammering away at 
the structure. When it was completed, eighty-three 



870 INTEMPERANCE, 

ladies at once took possession, and went on with their 
praying and singing as though there had been no inter- 
ruption. This was more than the resolute Dunn could 
stand. The lawyer who had so zealously defended 
Charlie Beck against the women at Washington Court 
House, was called in. There was then sitting on the 
bench of the Probate Court one Judge SafTord, a man 
whose term had nearly expired, and whose sympathies 
were anywhere but with the ladies. To him Dunn and 
his lawyer applied for a temporary injunction dissolving 
the tabernacle and the temperance party. Their success 
may be seen in the following order of the court: — 

" You are hereby notified and warned that David 
Johnson and W. H. H. Dunn, plaintiffs, have this day* 
obtained an order of temporary injunction, and a re- 
straining order, in an action pending in the Court of. 
Common Pleas, for the said county of Highland, wherein 
they are plaintiffs, and you, the above-namod persons, 
are defendants, and have given an undertaking according 
to law. This is, therefore, to command you, the said 
above-named defendants, each and all of you, from using 
for prayer, singing, exhorting, or any other purpose, a 
certain plank and canvas structure or shanty, erected on 
High Street, in Hillsboro', Ohio, in front of the drug 
store of said W. H. H. Dunn ; and it is further ordered that 
you, said defendants, are ordered to remove the said 
structure or shanty forthwith, and each and every part 
of the same, whether plank or canvas, and you are each 
and all hereby restrained and enjoined from re-erecting 
or replacing the said structure, or any similar structure, 
in said locality or upon said street, to the annoyance of 
the said W. H. H. Dunn ; and it is further ordered that 
you, the said defendants, each and all of you, are hereby 
enjoined and restrained from singing, praying, exhorting, 
or making a noise and disturbance in front of said drug 
si nro of said W. H. H. Dunn, or on the sidewalk, or on 
the steps thereof, or in the vicinity thereof, to his an- 
noyance, or from trespassing in or upon his said premises, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 371 

or in any manner interrupting his said business, and this 
you will in no wise omit under the penalty of the law. 

" Witness my hand and the seal of said Court of Hills- 
boro', the 31st day of January, 1874. 

[seal] " J. K. Pickering, Clerk. 

"A true copy: C. P. Pape, Sheriff." 

There was no res^.tance to this injunction. In the 
dead of night the r abernacle was quietly taken down, 
and next morning not a trace of it was visible. 

Then came on the trial of the case. High legal talent 
was employed on both sides. The defendants retained 
Judge Matthews and J. H. Thompson, Esq., of Hills- 
boro', and M. J. Williams, of Washington Court House ; 
and the plaintiffs, Messrs. Dunn, Beeson, Collins, and 
Parker. There was a long and weary contest in the 
Court of Common Pleas, beginning on the 17th of Feb- 
ruary, Judges S. F. Steel and T. M. Gray upon the bench. 
Judge Safford now appeared as an attorney to defend his 
action as a judge. 

Dunn, through his counsel, summed up his grievances 
in the following petition for a permanent injunction : — 

" The plaintiff, Dunn, claims that he is the lessee of a 
certain piece of property on High Street, of Hillsboro', 
which is owned by the other plaintiff, David Johnson ; 

that he has for years past been engaged in a 4 drug 

business ' therein, and that he has kept an orderly and 
quiet house, &c. ,* that on or about the 24th day of De- 
cember, 1873, certain defendants joined and agreed to- 
gether to break up and destroy his lawful business ; that 
they held ' temperance prayer meetings ' in his house from 
day to day thereafter, against his will and protests, and 
that he was compelled to lock his door and keep it 
locked ; that they met on the steps and sidewalk before 
his door, and held prayer meetings ' all day,' from day to 
day, and kept customers away from his place of busi- 
ness ; and that they made a 4 noise and disturbance by 



372 INTEMPEKASTCE, 

singing, praying, and exhorting,' to the annoyance of said 
Dunn, and to the depriving him of his rest and comfort; 
that he warned them repeatedly to desist ; and that on 
the night of January 30, 1874, he caused handbills to be 
struck and circulated, warning those so engaged, that if 
they did not desist he would appeal to the laws of the 
state for protection ; that on the afternoon (January 31) 
these men and women, avowedly for the purpose of 
breaking up his lawful business, erected a plank and 
canvas structure, or 'shanty,' on the street, before his 
store, about seventeen feet in front thereof, and five feet 
from the curbstone, open in front, and closed on three 
sides, &c, &c, which shanty prevented his customers 
from reaching the hitching-posts before his door, and 
obstructed the highway ; that said defendants occupied 
said structure, and threatened to occupy it day and 
night, and to persecute and annoy him until the} r forced 
him to yield to their unlawful demands ; that said 
shanty is a nuisance, decreasing the value of the prop- 
erty and obstructing the highway, and that the singing 
and praying are annoying to them and to the neighbor- 
hood, and therefore they (Johnson and Dunn) ask for an 
abatement and perpetual injunction." 

The defendants asked for a dissolution of the injunc- 
tion on the following grounds : — 

1. Because the undertaking (bond) of the plaintiff 
was insufficient. 

2. Because of the misjoinder of plaintiffs and defend- 
ants, and of actions. 

3. Because of the misjoinder of nuisances, the plain- 
tiff claiming that the shanty and the singing and praying 
disturbed his mind. 

4. Because of the omission of W. H. H. Dunn's Chris- 
tian name in the petition and injunction. 

5. Because that the affidavit was made only by Dunn, 
and not by Johnson. 

6. Because there was not sufficient damage shown to 
have occurred to call for an injunctive interference. 

7. Because the cause of action in favor of the plaintiffs 
was not a joint but a several cause. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 373 

8. Because the order was granted without sufficient 
notice, &c. 

9. Because the order is vague, uncertain, and void on 
its face, and without authority of law. 

The case was argued with great skill and pertinacity 
on both sides. It was held by the defendants that it 
must be more than a fanciful annoyance to entitle one 
to an injunction. Could singing one of the soft old 
•hymns, " Come, humble sinner," or, " Bring forth the 
royal demijohn, and let us sell it all," have destined 
Dunn's actual ease and comfort ? And as for Johnson, 
ke had been too deaf to hear thunder for thirty years. 

The plaintiffs, in turn, told how an ambassador in an 
Oriental land was annoyed by a howling dervish, who 
made demands upon him, and when they were not ac- 
ceded to, remained continually before the house, keeping 
up his religious exercises. The ambassador applied to 
the authorities for relief, but was told that because of the 
man's " sanctity " he must not be made amenable to 
law. " Our dervishes are Christians in good standing, 
but the law gives good and bad their rights alike." 

Judge SafTord's argument in defence of his own in- 
junction was a failure. Three fourths of his speech 
was an attempt to vindicate himself before the people of 
Hiilsboro'. Neither his defence of his injunction, nor 
that of himself, was deemed a success. 

At last, after four days of argument, during which 
the most eager interest was shown by the people, the 
case was concluded, and Judge Steel gave his decision. 
The temporary injunction was dissolved, but only on a 
technicality, and not on the merits of the case. The de- 
cision was, that the action could not go on because the 
petition made no case in favor of Johnson, the owner of 
the property. The result was a disappointment to both 
parties, and to the elements which they represented 



374 INTEMPERANCE, 

throughout the state. The plaintiffs appealed the case 
to the District Court, where, at this writing, it is still 
pending. 

After Dunn had succeeded in getting a temporary in- 
junction on the women, efforts were made in scores of 
towns, where the movement was now in progress, to 
check their operations in the same way. But the courts 
were generally in sympathy with the ladies. Judge after 
judge was applied to in vain. It was only in Morrow 
that any further serious hinderance was experienced by 
the temperance people in the way of restraining orders 
of courts. This case, and the decision in it, are of sue]} 
interest, that we give at length the main features. 

On the 17th of February, Henry Scheide (he who 
kept the "respectable saloon " at Morrow), went before 
Judge Gilmore, of Eaton, with the following petition : — 

" The said Henry Scheide, plaintiff, prays that each 
and every one of the said defendants, individually, 
jointly, and collectively, be restrained, prohibited, and 
enjoined from molesting, disturbing, or hindering the 
said Henry Scheide in the prosecuting and conduct- 
ing his said business, upon any pretence or pretext 
whatever, and invading, or meeting in or about his 
premises, to obstruct his said business ; and also praj's 
judgment against all of said defendants for the sum of 
one thousand dollars, and prays for all other proper re- 
lief in the premises." 

The said defendants were, — 

Mrs. E. R. Grim, Mrs. H. J. CofTeen, 
Frank Forshnell, Josiah Fair child, 

Geo. W. Davis, Porter Corson, 

John Hanford, Jas. H. Jeffery, 

Oscar T. Hanford, W. P. Hanford, 

B. F. Wilson, J. T. Welch, 

and one hundred and four other ladies and gentlemen, 
among whom were Dio Lewis and Van Pelt. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 375 

The trial came off at Lebanon the 28th of February. 
It was before Judge Smith, of the Circuit Court, and 
was conducted on the part of the women by Ex-Lieu- 
tenant Governor McBurney, Gen. Durbin Ward, Messrs. 
Brabosee and Van Harlingiri, of Lebanon, and Cun- 
ningham, of Morrow ; and on the part of the plaintiff by 
O'Neil, of Lebanon, and Wallace and Mayor Scantlin, 
of Morrow. It was a great day in Lebanon. The whole 
town of Morrow had come over and emptied itself upon 
the unfortunate village. A public dinner was given by 
the Lebanon ladies to their persecuted guests. Forty of 
the defendants marched to the court-house in solemn 
procession. Every inch of space in the building was 
packed full, even to the sacred precincts behind the bar, 
and on the bench. 

It is not necessary to review the arguments. The de- 
cision of Judge Smith, however, has a permanent inter- 
est, and we herewith reproduce the principal points. 
The ground on which the case was decided, it will be 
seen, was that the plaintiff had no right to ask legal pro- 
tection for a manifestly illegal business. 

" On the 17th day of February a temporary injunction 
was allowed in this case by Judge Gilmore, restraining 
the defendants as prayed for in the petition. This court 
is now asked to dissolve that injunction, for the reasons 
set forth in the motions which have been filed, and 
which, briefly stated, are the following : — 

" 1. That Judge Gilmore, when in another county, and 
while this court was in session, had no legal authority to 
grant it. 

" 2. Because the statements of the petition do not 
warrant a court of equity in granting the relief asked 
for, as it is apparent therefrom that he has an adequate 
remedy at law, and that the grievances complained of, 
or their continuance, have not, and cannot work a great 
or irreparable injury to the plaintiff. 23 



376 INTEMPERANCE, 

" 3. Because the allegations of the petition are untrue. 

" To support these, a very large number of affidavits 
have been filed in court here by the defendants, and some 
(additional to those on which the temporary injunction 
was allowed) have been ' produced by the plaintiff, to 
maintain the allegations of this petition." 

After noticing the first two points at length, the judge 
decides on the third point of the case as follows : — 

" But there is another ground, which, in my judg- 
ment, effectually disposes of this motion. That is the 
third, viz. : That the allegations of the petition are not 
true. He alleges that he kept a house where he con- 
ducted business according to law. From the nature of 
the case, the character of this business in this respect is 
directly in issue, and from the proof it is perfectly clear 
to my mind that instead of this it was a place where 
intoxicating liquors were habitually sold, in violation of 
the laws of the state, and where gambling was constantly 
being carried on. 

" Such a place as this our statute expressly declares to 
be a public nuisance, and which being shown in a proper 
case would have to be ordered by the court to be shut 
up. Now, the doctrine is perfectly well settled that a 
nuisance, either public or private, may be abated even 
by force, so no breach of the peace is committed. Surely, 
then, the means used here, with the view of abating this 
nuisance, were not unlawful or in derogation of the 
rights of the plaintiff ; for, as the keeper of such an estab- 
lishment, the maintainer of a public nuisance, and a 
gambling-house, he can have no standing in a court of 
equity, when he asks to be protected in his unlawful and 
criminal business. The injunction will be dissolved at 
plaintiffs costs." 

Thus the women triumphed in the only injunction 
case of the crusade that was decided on its merits. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 377 

There was great rejoicing at Morrow. A correspondent, 
writing frorn there under the inspiration of the good 
news, gives the following graphic description of the 
scene : — 

" As I write the band is playing and marching through 
our streets, followed by an immense throng of men, 
women, and children, shouting and rejoicing. Every 
church bell, school bell, &c, in town is ringing, and two 
or three locomotives are creating a terrible noise, 
whistling and ringing their bells. In fact, the entire 
town is wild with excitement. Hundreds of country 
people, hearing the noise of the bells and general tumult, . 
are flocking to town from all quarters, many thinking 
the village was in flames. An immense meeting is now 
in progress at the Presbyterian church, in addition to the 
immense throng upon our streets. Speeches are being 
made, and cheer upon cheer is rending the air. Morrow 
never had such an awakening, everybody being happy 
except the lawyers who defended Scheicle, and four or 
five saloon patrons." 

It was too much for Scheide. He shut up his estab- 
lishment, and left the town ; and thus ends the history 
of the " only respectable saloon in Morrow." 

In connection with these legal prosecutions against 
the women, it may be interesting to note one of the few 
instances where the saloonists were made to suffer by the 
law. As will be seen by reference to the statutes of the 
state, published in the following chapter, no saloon 
could carry on a paying business and comply strictly with 
the law. But there never has been, in any community, 
a public sentiment strong enough to enforce these laws, 
and the result was, saloon keepers, before this temperance 
revival, had come to look upon them as a dead letter. 

About the time the "moral suasion" plan of Dio 
Lewis was put into operation so successfully in Hills- 



378 INTEMPERANCE, 

boro', Washington, and Wilmington, Lebanon resolved to 
suppress the evil by legal force. It is interesting to 
compare the results of the two methods. Lebanon is 
one of the staid, virtuous old towns of Ohio, cut off from 
railroads and their attendant evils, and boasting four 
thousand inhabitants, nine churches, and (until recently) 
three saloons. The temperance fires have been kept 
burning there from the earliest times, and years ago the 
village corporation passed ordinances forbidding the sale 
of ale and beer, and prohibiting the keeping open of 
tippling-houses. A few cases were tried when the ordi- 
nances were new, but they gradually fell into disuse and 
were forgotten. But there came, early in the winter of 
1873, a deep religious awakening, and, following close 
upon it, a revival of public sentiment on the subject of 
temperance. Some one thought of the rusty old ordi- 
nances, and it was determined to bring them out and see 
how they would work. 

John Braden, Henry Glady, and Nathan Woods were 
the three members of the liquor selling fraternity. They 
were shrewd men to deal with, and though every one 
knew they were selling daily, in violation of the law, it 
was not so easy a matter to make a good case against 
them. Foreseeing difficulties of this kind, the young 
Congregational minister, Rev. E. B. Burrows, who was 
a leader in the movement, quietly slipped down to Cin- 
cinnati and employed the services of a detective. The 
stranger came to town, seemed a jolly good fellow, loafed 
round the saloons, taking a daily drink at each place, and 
when the prosecution came on he was ready to swear 
that he had drank for fifteen consecutive days at the 
defendants' bars. 

The first cases were against Braden & Glady, who 
were partners, and John Glady, who run a separate es- 
tablishment alone. The immediate cause of the suit was 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 379 

a quarrel between Glady and one of his customers and 
chronic loafers. The latter, to gratify his personal feel- 
ings, commenced a prosecution for violation of the vil- 
lage ordinance. Ferd. Yan Harlingin, a recently re- 
formed drunkard, who had once been a brilliant lawyer, 
took up the cause and prosecuted it with all his might. 
The arrests were made quietly, but the suits soon began 
to attract the public attention. The temperance people 
stepped in, and the opposition arrayed all their forces. 
When the trial came off in the court-house, the roughs 
made an attempt to collect in numbers and bully the case 
through, in the manner such suits were generally dis- 
posed of. But they were met by a counteracting influ- 
ence. The wealth, influence, and respectability of the 
place turned out in such force that the court-room was 
filled to overflowing. The trials began early in January, 
and lasted a week. The saloon keepers were beaten, 
and got the full extent of the law. The firm Braden & 
Glady were fined ninety dollars, and ten days each in 
the calaboose, and John Glady two hundred and eighty 
dollars, and ten days in the calaboose. 

When the baffled saloonists were languishing in their 
cells, their views began to moderate. They concluded 
they would compromise. A proposition was made by 
Mr. Glady (who virtually controlled both concerns), to 
sell his real estate and quit the business and the place 
providing the fines and remainder of the imprisonment 
be remitted. The compromise was accepted, and but 
one saloon was left in Lebanon — that of Nate Woods. 
A suit was soon brought against him, and he was sen- 
tenced to one hundred and twenty dollars fine, and seven 
days in the jug. He served out his term, paid his fines 
and costs, and returned to his business, but only to sell 
by the quantity, according to law. 

This system of selling according to law, — i. e., not to be 



830 ENTEMPEBANCB, 

drank on (he premises, — which came to be adopted by 

frightened saloon keepers in many places, dining the 
progress of the movement, is a unique and Bomewhat 
amusing one. A shelf full of two-ounce bottles is kept 

all ready filled, and when a customer wants a single drink 
one of these bottles is sold him. The thirsty party then 
retires around a corner, into an alley, or any where off 
the premises, and takes his refreshment. If he lias Bome 
friends to treat, a number of small bottles are bought 
and distributed among the party. These bottles are 
generally thrown away, and it was said that the small 
boys at Lebanon derived quite a revenue from picking 
them up and disposing of them at the drugstores. 

It will readily he Been that this excellent law, which 
has so long lain unobserved on the statute books of the 
state, would, if enforced, do away with the whole system 
of treating, — that absurd and pernicious American 
practice, — and thereby restrict the amount of drinking 
b}' at least one half. It would clear bar-rooms of those 
wretched specimens of our race who hang around, ex- 
pecting an invitation to drink. It would suppress that 
pot-house sociability by which politicians buy their way 
into office. It would save thousands of young men from 
forming an appetite for liquor, by drinking because their 
companions do, whether they want it or not. It would 
shut up, within a week, two thirds of all the saloons in 
Ohio. In short, it would confine the whole business of 
drinking to the bottle-at-home plan. 

But is it possible to enforce this law ? and, if possible, 
is it expedient ? Before this temperance excitement be- 
gan, there was scarcely a community in Ohio that con- 
tained moral force enough to confront the liquor men 
with this legal weapon ; now, there are hundreds of 
places where the law can be carried into speedy execu- 
tion the moment there is a necessity for it. So much 



; 31 

I the 

; I h 

! e work mod 

> behind it • 
\ 

.t in 

I 



382" INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A CHAPTER OF TEMPERANCE LAWS. — THE CELEBRATED ADAIR AND 
BAXTER LAWS. — OTHER MUNICIPAL AND STATE LEGISLATION. — THE 
" MoCONNELSVILLE ORDINANCE." — HOW FAR THE LAWS HAVE 
FAILED IN EXECUTION, AND THE REASONS THEREFOR. — LITIGATION 
UNDER THE ADAIR LAW. — DAMAGES SELDOM RECOVERED IN THE 
CITIES, BUT OFTEN IN THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS. 

There lias been no lack of legislation on the subject 
of temperance for the past twenty years. The statute 
books of the various states contain laws wisely framed 
and properly enacted, which they know little, and care 
still less, about. What the result of this legislation has 
been, it is not necessary here to discuss. License, pro- 
hibition, restriction, — every form of law has been tried ; 
but Intemperance stalks forward, apparently unchecked. 
No fault can be found with the laws ; the difficulty lies 
back of them. People are beginning to realize that 
what is wanted now is agitation, and not legislation. 
The machinery of law may be skilfully constructed and 
then set to work, but unless it have the motive-power of 
a strong and healthy popular sentiment, it will not grind 
out a temperance commonwealth, or make the individual 
more virtuous. 

Allusion has been so frequently made to the statutes 
of the state on the subject of temperance, that it may 
be well, before proceeding farther, to give a summary 
of some of the principal liquor laws now existing. 

In 1857, when the new constitution of Ohio was pre- 
sented to the people for adoption or rejection, an addi- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 383 

tional section was submitted, for the purpose of obtain- 
ing an expression of the electors on the subject of license 
and prohibition, by a separate ballot. This section was 
in the following words : — 

" No license to traffic in intoxicating liquors shall here- 
after be granted in this state ; but the General Assembly 
may, by law, provide against the evils resulting there- 
from." 

The vote of the people on this question resulted as 
follows: License to sell — No, 113,239 ; yes, 104,255 ; 
majority for no license, 8,984. It thus became a consti- 
tutional provision that the legislature was incompetent 
to license the sale of intoxicating liquors for the next 
twenty years. Popular sentiment, at that time, was 
strong upon the temperance question, and the proposition 
to license was voted down by this large majority, not- 
withstanding the recent influx of foreigners. 

The first legislature which assembled under this new 
constitution passed a bill (May 1, 1854 — Swan & 
Critchfield, vol. ii., p. 1431), which has been the basis 
of all subsequent legislation in Ohio. The provisions 
of that statute were briefly as follows : — 

Section 1. The sale of intoxicating liquors, to be 
drank on the premises where sold, or in any adjoining 
room, or place of resort, connected with such building, 
was prohibited. 

Sect. 2. It shall be unlawful for any person, by agent 
or otherwise, to sell intoxicating liquors to minors, unless 
upon the written order of their parents or guardians, or 
family physician. 

Sect. 3. This section prohibits the sale of liquors to 
any person intoxicated, or who is in the habit of becom- 
ing intoxicated. 

Sect. 4. All places where liquors are sold in violation 
of this act shall be declared public nuisances, and abated 



384 INTEMPERANCE, 

as such, and the keeper thereof punished as hereinafter 
provided. 

Sect. 5. Any person who shall, by the sale of liquors, 
cause the intoxication of any other person, shall be com- 
pelled to pay a reasonable compensation to any one who 
shall take charge of such intoxicated person, and one 
dollar per day additional for every day he shall be kept; 
which sums may be recovered by any court having juris- 
diction. 

Sect. 6. It shall be unlawful for any person to get 
intoxicated, and every person found in a state of in- 
toxication shall, on conviction thereof, be fined five 
dollars. 

Sect. 7. This section provides that any wife, child, 
parent, guardian, employer, or other person injured in 
his or her means of support by such intoxication, may 
bring an action for damages against the person selling 
the liquor. (The Adair law, hereinafter given, is a sub- 
stitute for this section of the statute.) 

Sect. 8. Section eight provides penalties for the vio- 
lation of the first, second, and third sections of this act, 
and was amended in 1859. 

Sect. 9. The giving away of intoxicating liquors, or 
any other shift or device to evade the provisions of the 
act, shall be held unlawful selling. 

Sect. 10. This provides for the collection of fines, 
stating who and what are liable, and was repealed by 
the Adair law, passed in 1870. 

Sect. 11. All prosecutions under this act shall be in 
the name of the state, and shall be begun upon a written 
complaint, under oath or affirmation, before any justice 
of the peace, or mayor of the town, village, or city cor- 
poration within which the offence was committed, or by 
information or indictment. 

I Sect. 12 states the form of complaint in such proceed- 
ings. 

Sect. 13. In these prosecutions, it shall not be neces- 
sary to state the kind of liquors sold, or to describe 
the place where sold ; and for any violation of the fourth 
section, it shall not be necessary to state to whom sold ; 
and in all cases the person or persons to whom intoxi- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 385 

eating liquors shall be sold, in violation of this act, shall 
be competent as witnesses to prove such fact, or any 
other tending thereto. 

Sect. 14 repeals all previous statutes on the same sub- 
ject. 

With, the exception of some unimportant amendments, 
this was the only legislation in reference to selling and 
drinking intoxicating liquors in Ohio until April 18, 
1870. The General Assembly then passed, by a close 
vote, the bill which has attracted so much attention un- 
der the name of the Adair law. Owing to its important 
bearings on the present woman's movement, and frequent 
reference made to it, we herewith append the full text 
of the bill : — 

THE ADAIR LAW. 

Be it enacted, $c, that sections seven and ten of 
the above-recited act be so amended as to read as fol- 
lows : — 

Section 7. That every husband, wife, child, parent, 
guardian, or employer, or other person, who shall be in- 
jured in person or property, or means of support, by any 
intoxicated person, or in consequence of the intoxication, 
habitual or otherwise, of any person, such wife, child, 
parent, guardian, employer, or other person, shall have a 
right of action in his or her own name, severally or 
jointly, against any person or persons who shall, by 
selling or giving intoxicating liquors, have caused the 
intoxication, in whole or in part, of such person or per- 
sons . 

And the owner of, lessee, or person or persons rent- 
ing or leasing any building or premises, having knowl- 
edge that intoxicating liquors are to be sold therein, in 
violation of the law ; or, having leased the same for other 
purposes, shall knowingly permit intoxicating liquors to 
be sold in such building or premises, that have caused the 
intoxication, in whole or in part, of any such person or 
persons, shall be liable, severally, or jointly with the 
persons selling or giving the intoxicating liquors afore- 



386 INTEMPERANCE, 

said, for all damages sustained, as well as exemplary 
damages. 

And a married woman shall have the same right 
to bring suits, and contest the same, and the amount 
recovered, as a feme sole ; and all damages recovered 
by a minor under this act shall be paid either to 
the minor, or to his or her parent, guardian, or next 
friend, as the court may direct ; and the unlawful sale 
or giving away of intoxicating liquors shall work a for- 
feiture of all rights of the lessee, or tenant, under any 
lease or contract of rent upon any premises where 
such unlawful sale or giving away shall take place ; and 
all suits for damages under this act shall be by a civil 
action in any of the courts of this state having juris- 
diction thereof. 

Sect. 10. For all fines, costs, and damages assessed 
against any person or persons in consequence of the sale 
of intoxicating liquors, as provided in section seven of 
this act, and the act to which this is amendatory, the 
real estate or personal property of such person or per- 
sons, of every kind, without exception or exemption, 
except under the act to amend an act entitled an act to 
regulate judgments and executions bv law, passed March 
1, 1831, passed March 9, 1840, took effect March 15, 
1840, shall be liable for the payment thereof; and such 
fines, costs, and damages shall be a lien upon such real 
estate until paid ; and in case any person or persons shall 
rent or lease to another, or others, any building or 
premises to be used or occupied, in whole or in part, for 
the sale of intoxicating liquors, or shall permit the same 
to be so used or occupied, in whole or in part, such 
building or premises so leased, used, or occupied shall be 
held liable for, and may be leased to pay all fines, costs, 
and damages assessed against any person or persons oc- 
cupying such building or premises. 

And proceedings may be had to subject the same to 
the payment of any such fine and costs assessed, or 
judgment recovered, which remained unpaid, or any 
part thereof, either before or after execution shall issue 
against the property of the person or persons against whom 
such fines and costs or judgment shall have been ad- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMED Y. 387 

judged or assessed ; and when execution shall issue 
against the property so leased or rented, the officer shall 
proceed to satisfy said execution out of the building or 
premises so leased or occupied, as aforesaid ; and in case 
such building or premises belong to a minor, insane person, 
or idiot, the guardian of such minor, insane person, or idiot, 
who has control of such building or premises, shall be 
liable to account to his or her ward for all damages on 
account of such use and occupation of the building or 
premises, aud the liabilities for the fines, costs, and 
damages aforesaid ; and all contracts whereby any 
building or premises shall be rented or leased, and the 
same shall be used or occupied, in whole or in part, for 
the sale of intoxicating liquors, shall be void, and the 
(lessee) person or persons renting or leasing said build- 
ing or premises shall, on and after the selling of intoxi- 
cating liquors aforesaid, be considered and held to be in 
possession of said building or premises. * 

This bill, which went into effect July 4, 1870, made 
the business of keeping a saloon a precarious and un- 
profitable one, where the law was complied with. 

SELLING TO MINORS AND DRUNKARDS. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of 
the State of Ohio, that it shall be unlawful for any 
person or persons to buy for or furnish to any person 
who is at the time intoxicated, or in the habit of getting 
intoxicated, or to buy for or furnish to any minor, to be 
drank by such minor, any intoxicating liquors whatso- 
ever, unless given by a physician in the regular line of 
his practice. 

Sect. 2. That for every violation of the provisions of 
the first section of this act, every person so offending 
shall, upon conviction thereof, forfeit and pay a fine of 
not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, or 
be imprisoned in the jail of the county for not less than 
ten nor more than thirty days, or both of them, at the 
discretion of the court, and shall pay the costs of the 
prosecution. 

[Passed and took effect April 5, 1866.] 



888 INTEMPERANCE, 

RIOTING AND DRUNKENNESS IN TAVERNS. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of 
the State of Ohio, that if any tavern keeper shall per- 
mit or allow any kind of rioting or revelling, intoxication 
or drunkenness, in his house, or on his premises, every 
such tavern keeper shall, for every such offence, on con- 
viction, be fined not less than five nor more than one 
hundred dollars. 

[Passed and took effect February 27, 1867.] 

TO BE GIVEN IN CHARGE TO GRAND JURY. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of 
the State of Ohio, that the act entitled " An act to pro- 
vide against the evils resulting from the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors in the State of Ohio," passed May 1, 
1854, shall be given in special charge to the grand jury by 
the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of each term 
thereof. 

[Passed and took effect March 8, 1865.] 

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ACT. 

Section 199. (As amended April 18, 1870.) All cities 
and incorporated villages shall have the general powers 
hereinafter mentioned, and may provide by ordinance for 
the exercise of the same. . . . 

Paragraph 5. To regulate, restrain, and prohibit ale, 
beer, and porter houses, and places of notorious or ha- 
bitual resort for tippling or intemperance. . . . 
[Passed May 7, 1869.] 

Under the authority given in the above act, the incor- 
porated village of McConnelsville, Ohio, passed the fol- 
lowing prohibitory ordinance, which has been declared 
constitutional by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and all 
parties interested may make use of it to the advantage 
of their own localities : — 



Section 1. Be it enacted by the Council of the incor- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 389 

porated village of MeCoimelsville, Ohio, that it shall be 
unlawful for any person or persons to keep within the 
said incorporated village of McConnelsville any house, 
room, shop, booth, arbor, cellar, or place of habitual re- 
sort for tippling or intemperance. 

Sect. 2. Be it further ordained, that it shall be un- 
lawful for any person or persons to keep within the said 
incorporated village of McConnelsville a house, shop, 
room, booth, arbor, cellar, or place where ale, porter, or 
beer is habitually sold or furnished to be drank in, upon, 
or about the house, shop, room, booth, arbor, cellar, or 
place where so sold or furnished. 

Sect. 3. And be it further ordained,- that for any vio- 
lation of the first section of this ordinance, the person 
or persons so offending shall, upon conviction, forfeit and 
pay a fine of not less than ten dollars, or more than fifty 
dollars, and shall also be imprisoned in the county jail 
for a period not exceeding thirty days. That for every 
violation of the second section of this ordinance, the 
person or persons so offending shall, upon conviction, 
forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, and be 
imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding twenty days. 

Sect. 4. Be it further ordained, that all prosecutions 
under this ordinance shall be in the name of the incorpo- 
rated village of McConnelsville, and shall be commenced 
under a written complaint, under oath or affirmation, 
before the mayor of said -village ; and, upon the filing 
of such complaint, the mayor shall issue a warrant, di- 
rected to the marshal of said village, for the arrest of 
the accused. The marshal shall forthwith arrest the 
person thus charged, and bring the accused before the 
mayor, who shall proceed as provided by law ; and the 
mayor, upon the conviction of any person for the viola- 
tion of any of the provisions of this ordinance, may 
make it a part of the sentence that the accused shall 
stand committed to the jail of the county until the fine 
and costs assessed against such person shall be paid or 
secured to be paid, or otherwise discharged, according 
to law. 

Sect. 5. It shall be the duty of the marshal and as- 
sistant marshals of said village to make complaint 



390 INTEMPERANCE, 

against all persons found violating any of the provisions 
of this ordinance. 

Sect. 6. This ordinance shall take effect on and after 
its second publication in the Conservative, a newspaper 
printed in said village of McConnelsvile, Ohio. 

James Watklns, Mayor, 

John H. Murray, Clerk. 

SELLING LIQUOR OR TRADING NEAR CAMP MEETINGS. 

Section 1. (As amended May 1, 1861.) Be it en- 
acted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, 
that no person shall sell, or expose for sale, give, barter, 
or otherwise dispose of in any way, or at any place, 
any spirituous or other liquors, or any articles of 
traffic, whatsoever, at or within the distance of four 
miles from the place where any religious society and as- 
semblage of people are collected or collecting together 
for religious worship in any field or woodland ; provided, 
that nothing in this act shall affect tavern keepers exer- 
cising their calling , nor distillers, manufacturers, or 
others in prosecuting their regular trades at their 
places of business, or any person disposing of any ordi- 
nary articles of provisions, excepting spirituous liquors, 
at their residences ; nor any person having a written 
permit from the trustees or managers of any such reli- 
gious society or assemblage to sell provisions for the sup- 
ply of persons attending such religious worship, their 
horses or cattle, such persons acting in conformity to the 
regulations of said religious assembly and to the laws of 
the state. 

Sect. 2. (This provides for the manner of prosecu- 
tion, &c, under the above act.) 

[Passed and took effect April 12, 1858.] 

SELLING LIQUORS ON ELECTION DAYS. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of 
the State of Ohio, that it shall be unlawful for any 
person within this state to sell, barter, or give away, any 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY.' 391 

spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors on the day of any 
election held within this state, under the constitution 
or laws thereof ; and it is hereby made the duty of each 
and all persons who are authorized under or by the laws 
of this state, or the municipal regulations of any city, 
town, or village of this state, to sell or barter any spir- 
ituous, vinous, or malt liquors, to close their respective 
establishments on those days. Any person offending 
against the provisions of this act shall be fined in any 
sum not less than five nor more than one hundred dol- 
lars, and be imprisoned in the county jail for a period 
not exceeding ten days for each offence so committed ; 
and it shall be the duty of all mayors of cities and in- 
corporated villages within this state, on the days of elec- 
tion, as aforesaid, to issue a proclamation, warning the 
inhabitants of such city or village of the provisions of 
this act, and that all violations of the same will subject 
the offender to prompt and speedy punishment, and re- 
quiring marshals and police officers, under their respec- 
tive jurisdictions, to close all houses found violating the 
provisions of this act, and to report forthwith all viola- 
tions thereof to such mayors. 

Sect 2. (This provides for the disposition of fines, 
&c.) 

[Passed and took effect March 10, 1864.] 

Laws also exist in relation to the adulteration of 
liquors ; to provide for the appointment of guardians for 
habitual drunkards ; and others, which are not deemed 
of sufficient importance for republication here. The city 
of Cincinnati has an ordinance making it unlawful to 
sell liquor on Sunday ; to allow revelling, drunkenness, 
gaming, or disorderly conduct on the premises of any 
person ; to sell liquor to minors, or persons intoxicated ; 
providing a penalty of not less than ten nor more than 
fifty dollars for every violation of the ordinance, and 
making it the special duty of the mayor, chief of po- 
lice, and other proper officers, to enforce such ordinance 
strictly. 

24 



392 ♦ INTEMPERANCE, 

THE INDIANA BAXTER LAW. 

The Baxter law of Indiana was passed by the legis- 
lature on the 20th of February, 1873. It is one of the 
most unique and interesting pieces of temperance legis- 
lation ever adopted. It contains the main provisions of 
the Adair law in Ohio, and several additional features 
of importance. The effect of this law, if enforced, 
would be to place in the hands of every community the 
power to regulate the liquor traffic in its midst ; and, 
furthermore, to make the liquor seller liable for dam- 



Section 1 makes it unlawful for any person to sell or 
give away intoxicating liquors, to be drank on the prem- 
ises, until such person has obtained a permit from the 
Board of County Commissioners, as hereinafter pro- 
vided. 

Sect. 2. Any person desiring a permit to sell intoxi- 
cating liquors, shall file in the office of the County Au- 
ditor, not less than twenty days before the session of the 
County Commissioners, a petition in writing, stating his 
ward or township, street, number, &c, which petition 
shall be signed by the applicant, and also by a majority 
of the legal voters of the ward or township where the 
applicant proposes to sell intoxicating liquors. Such 
petition shall be examined by the board, and if found to 
be in proper form, the Auditor shall deliver to the appli- 
cant the permit asked for. 

Sect. 3. Before the granting of a permit by the Board 
of Commissioners, the applicant shall cause to be exe- 
cuted and properly acknowledged, a bond, payable to 
the State of Indiana, in the sum of three thousand dol- 
lars, with good freehold security thereon, of not less 
than two persons, to be approved by the Board, and con- 
ditioned for the payment of any and all fines, penalties, 
and forfeitures for the violation of any of the provisions 
of this act ; and conditioned further, that the principals 
and sureties therein named shall be jointly and severally 
liable for all damages which may be inflicted upon any 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 393 

person or property by reason of snch sale of intoxicating 
liquors. Separate suits may be brought on said bonds 
by the person or persons injured, but the aggregate 
amount recovered shall not exceed the amount of three 
thousand dollars. In case said bond shall be exhausted 
by recoveries thereon, a new bond shall be filed within 
ten days, and in default thereof, said permit shall be 
deemed to be revoked. Such bond may be sued and 
recovered upon in any court having civil jurisdiction in 
the county, except Justices' Courts. 

Sect. 4. The majority of votes cast in the last pre- 
ceding congressional or municipal election, shall be 
deemed a majority of voters whose signatures are re- 
quired to such permit ; and any person signing such 
petition, who is not a legally qualified voter, shall be 
fined not less than fifty dollars, nor more than one hun- 
dred dollars. 

Sect. 5. No permit Shall be granted for a longer or 
shorter time than one year. And it is further provided, 
that a copy of the order of the commissioners must be 
conspicuously posted up in the room where the liquors 
are sold, and any failure to comply- with this provision 
shall work a forfeiture of the permit. 

Sect. 6. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or 
give liquors to any minor, or to any other person in the 
habit of getting intoxicated. 

Sect. 7. All places where intoxicating liquors are sold 
in violation of this act shall be closed as public nui- 
sances. 

Sect. 8 makes the saloon keeper liable for the cost of 
caring for an intoxicated person. 

Sect. 9 makes it unlawful for any person to get intox- 
icated, and provides that any one convicted of intoxica- 
tion shall be required to designate the person from 
whom he bought the liquors. 

Sect. 10 prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors on 
Sunday, on Election days, on Christmas or Thankgiving 
day, on the Fourth of July, and on any public holiday. 
It also prohibits the keeping open of saloons after nine 
o'clock at night, and before six o'clock in the morning. 

Sect. 11. Bartering or giving away liquors shall be 
deemed the same as selling. 



391 INTEMPERANCE, 

Sect. 12 provides that any husband, wife, child, parent, 
guardian, employer, &c, shall have the right of action 
against the seller of the liquor causing intoxication. 
(This corresponds to the similar provision in the Adair 
law of Ohio.) 

Sect. 13. In case the intoxicated person has no rela- 
tive or other person to bring action against the saloon 
keeper for injury, it shall be the duty of the Township 
Trustee, having in charge the poor, to bring such action, 
the money thus collected to go to the benefit of the poor 
in that ward or township. 

Sect. 14 to 16 provide for the fines and penalties under 
this act, and for the jurisdiction of courts. 

Sect. 17. It shall be unlawful for any person to buy 
for, or furnish to, any person who is at the time intoxi- 
cated, or in the habit of getting" intoxicated, or to any 
minor, to be drank by such intoxicated person or minor, 
any intoxicating liquor. Any person violating this sec- 
tion shall be fined not less than five nor more than fifty 
dollars. 

Sect. 18. In all prosecutions under this act it shall 
not be necessary to state the kind of liquor sold, or to 
describe the place where sold, and it shall not be neces- 
sary to state to whom sold ; and in all cases, the person 
or persons to whom intoxicating liquors are sold shall be 
competent witnesses to prove such facts or any tending 
thereto. 

The remaining sections of the act indicate the form 
of complaint, repeal all conflicting laws, and provide 
that the act shall take effect as soon as passed. 

Such is the substance of the temperance 'legislation in 
the two States of Ohio and Indiana. One would think 
that with such admirably constructed laws, the traffic in 
intoxicating liquors must be under perfect control. But 
what do we find to be the case ? Until quite recently, 
except in isolated cases, there was scarcely a pretence 
of carrying any of these laws into execution. The bold 
front of the liquor interest presented too many terrors 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 395 

for private citizens to undertake prosecutions, and the 
officers to whom the duty was delegated, in too many 
instances, owed their election to the very men whom 
they were expected to prosecute. Moreover, if a public 
official undertook the execution of the law, it was rarely 
that he found a public sentiment strong enough to sustain 
him and keep him in office. 

The Adair law, at this writing, has been in force' 
nearly four years. It may interest many to know how 
extensive and successful the litigation under it has been. 
Upon the occasion of a woman obtaining a verdict of 
fifteen hundred dollars in Cleveland, recently, a paper 
in that city made the statement that that was the only 
instance in a large city where damages had been re- 
covered under the law. The statement was somewhat 
startling, and though not strictly true, it showed that 
the law in the cities is practically ineffective. In Cin- 
cinnati there have only been two or three instances 
where the plaintiffs have recovered, and these only in 
small sums. Ten times that number of actions have 
been brought, but the result has been, almost invariably, 
a compromise, or a verdict for the defendants. 

In the country, however, the case is quite different. 
Literally, thousands of .suits have been brought by the 
wives and children of drunkards, and in a good propor- 
tion of the cases, damages, to a greater or less extent, 
have been recovered. The cases have been generally 
contested with great obstinacy, and frequently appealed 
to higher courts. Five or six have thus found their way 
to the Supreme Court of the state, which has always 
declared the Adair law constitutional in every particular. 
In regard to the last section of the law, which declares 
a lease to a liquor seller, selling contrary to law, invalid, 
it has been decided that to set aside such lease a sepa- 
rate suit must be brought. 



396 INTEMPERANCE, 

In Indiana the experience has been very similar to 
that of Ohio. In the country districts the law has been 
quite readily and thoroughly enforced ; in the cities it 
has, so far, proved a total failure. The bold and in- 
genious methods by which the saloon keepers have 
dodged the law will be found in a subsequent chapter 
on the work in Indiana. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 397 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE TRIUMPHAL MARCH OF DIO LEWIS. — THE MAN AND HIS OPINIONS. — 
THE XENIA MASS MEETING. — INAUGURATION OF THE WORK IN SPRING- 
FIELD, LEBANON, MOUNT VERNON, ETC. — MOTHER STEWART, THE 
SPRINGFIELD LEADER. — INTERVIEWS WITH SALOON KEEPERS. — WHY 
THE MASS MEETING AT COLUMBUS FAILED. — THANKSGIVING JUBILEE 
AT WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE. — THE TRANSFORMATION OF XENIA, 
MOUNT VERNON. ETC. — REMARKABLE SURRENDER OF THE SHADES OF 
DEATH. 

On the last day of January Dio Lewis wrote from 
Boston to the Cincinnati papers that he could no longer 
deny himself a visit to the front. Soon after his lecture 
at Washington Court House he had returned east, little 
expecting that the movement he had inaugurated was 
destined to reach such stupendous proportions. It was 
an experiment that he had often tried during the last 
nineteen years, but he had never before met the women 
with the moral courage to carry it through. Southern 
Ohio was the first soil he had found where his temperance 
plant would grow; and its growth had been a marvel 
alike to him and to the whole world. After watching 
the battle for a while at a distance, he determined to 
enter the field and lend a helping hand " where the 
movement had not yet been fairly inaugurated, or 
where another soldier might help to turn the fortunes of 
the day." 

Let us take a general survey of the field at this time. 
The excitement had penetrated every corner of South- 
ern Ohio, and was spreading rapidly northward, and into 



INTEMPERANCE, 

other states. It was the prominent topic of conversa- 
tion everywhere. People who ridiculed the movement 
at first, as a species of fanaticism, now saw it growing 
into a great social revolution. Nowhere had the women 
been vanquished, thus far, in a fair fight with whiskey. 
They had achieved the most astonishing victories over 
stubborn saloon keepers, and by their very success com- 
pelled the respect of their opponents. Just about this 
time the Cincinnati Gazette published statistics from 
about twenty-five towns, showing that one hundred and 
nine saloons had been closed, and twenty-two drug stores 
pledged to sell no intoxicating liquor. 

Such was the general situation on the 9th of February, 
when Dio Lewis arrived in Cincinnati. Of course he 
was straightway "interviewed" by reporters of the city 
press, and appropriately written up. In person he was 
found to be a fine specimen of the physical man, six feet 
in height, with a muscular development and freshness of 
appearance that was a walking argument in favor of his 
great theory — temperance. His mental faculties were 
also about as well developed as his physical. He had 
decided views about the whole question, and was never 
at a loss for words or facts to sustain them. The re- 
portorial gimlet was first applied in relation to the legal 
cases, an outline of which has been given in a previous 
chapter. The following was the result : — 

" There never was a day since this movement was in- 
augurated that presented such a golden opportunity as 
that now offered to the ladies of Washington and Hills- 
boro'. For years these saloon men have been violating 
every law of God and man, and the men have treated it 
lightly. Now the ladies, in this holiest of causes of mere 
human interest, have violated some technicality ; the law, 
the mighty law, is appealed to at once. Now let the 
ladies prove equal to the occasion — go two hundred 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 399 

strong, and kneel and pray before Dr. Dunn's store, and 
then submit to the law. The blood of the martyr is the 
seed of the church. Is there a judge in Ohio that would 
consign them to prison, or a constable that would execute 
such a decree ? Then should the ladies submit and take 
imprisonment, for rest assured it will not be long ; then 
every man in Ohio, who has a spark of manliness in him, 
would burn with shame, and the free men of this state 
would rise in their might, and say, This traffic in death 
shall be crushed out." 

Subsequent to this Dr. Lewis modified his view in this 
respect, and counselled obedience to the laws. The doc- 
tor continued : — 

"It is safe to say that three fourths of the men and 
nineteen twentieths of the ladies are in favor of strong 
temperance measures, if they could be got at without 
entangling side issues. But why is not this sentiment 
put into action ? A has a business ; his eye is on that. B 
has a shop ; his eye is there. C and D have farm and mer- 
chandise ; and they go their ways, saying, 'It's a pity, a 
great pity that men will debase themselves ; but it always 
has been so, and always will.' But let them see a band 
of women praying, singing, pleading with the rum sellers, 
and all at once this latent sentiment springs into life. 
The man and the citizen is shamed, and the Christian 
and patriot alarmed, for their country, and every one is 
impelled to do his best. And that is why I justify this 
mode of fighting intemperance. I know it is not nice. 
It would be much pleasanter for those ladies to sit at 
home and talk about the evils of intemperance. But must 
they sit at home while brothers perish ? No ; they must 
come out and waken the moral sense of the communnVv. 
Why, we are not talking to convince people of the 
evils of intemperance. That would be a pure waste of 
time. We want them to act — act on what they already 
know." * 



400 . INTEMPERANCE, 

Next day the temperance party started on its travels. 
It consisted of Dr. Lewis, the noted Van Pelt, who went 
along in the double capacity of lecturer and " horrible 
example," and four members of the press, represent- 
ing the Cincinnati dailies and the New York Tribune. 
The destination was Xenia, where a rousing mass meet- 
ing was to be held the same night. When the cars 
reached Loveland, Dr. Lewis was handed a despatch 
asking him to step off at Morrow, and give the labor- 
ers some adviu^ and encouragement. He answered yes, 
and at three o'clock the whole party alighted. A 
prayer meeting- was then in progress at the door of Max 
Goepper's saloon. It was a strange picture to look 
upon. At one door of the saloon was a woman with 
hands raised in prayer ; at another, the proprietor was 
placidly smoking a cigar, and trying to force a smile of 
contempt and unconcern, while all about were moving 
trains and hundreds of bystanders. 

The meeting came to order, and Van Pelt was loudly 
called for. Thereupon the converted rum seller came 
forward, and, with a preparatory clearing of the throat, 
launched out upon the first temperance speech of the 
tour. Barring the unreportable mistakes of grammar, 
and twisting of the king's English, he spoke substantially 
as follows : — 



" Ladies and Gentlemen : As by request I will give 
you a little of my experience as a saloon keeper, and 
then pass on to some arguments to show that the ardent 
is one of the greatest curses of the land, and that the 
labors of these women are destined to sweep it out of 
our midst. As a saloon keeper I could bring up many 
dreadful acts during my experience. When I look back, 
I can't see how any man can keep up the business of 
selling liquor. I will suppose myself in my own saloon. 
I will pass behind the bar with a smile, meeting my cus- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 401 

tomer with a decanter ; and, as he gulps down the liquid 
poison, I look at the man ; I see that God has endowed 
him with all the strength of manhood ; that perhaps he 
has been raised in good society. Then I look at him 
after a few years have passed. See his emaciated form 
and tattered clothes ! Could one believe that he was 
once the pride of the society of the place ? And this is 
but a case out of ten thousand. Many have I thus started 
on the road to ruin, and led on down the broad way. 
Now, when he thinks of this, is there a man who can 
stand and deal out these liquors ? It is hard for me to 
follow my own experience. When I look back, it seems 
as if only a monster could do the things I have done. 
Yet men are doing this every day. 

" Now, to our dear sisters who are laboring in the 
cause, I will say that they have the greatest reason to 
labor on. Take a mother who has pleaded with her 
erring son, and then just when she has persuaded him to 
leave his wickedness, a tempting companion, or a saloon- 
ist, leads him astray again. How many such cases there 
are ! Why, then, shouldn't our sisters and mothers work 
in the cause ? I don't believe there is a saloon keeper 
in the United States but that believes he is shortening 
the lives of his fellow-creatures just to fill his own coffers. 
We might enter into arguments to show the saloon keep- 
ers that they are wrong ; but they are already satisfied 
of that." 

He was listened to with great interest by the crowd, 
who were curious to hear the man whose wickedness 
had given him a reputation almost national. Dr. Lewis 
then spoke a few feeling words, and all adjourned to the 
Methodist church, where both Lewis and Van Pelt again 
made speeches. 

The party arrived in Xenia in time to face an immense 
audience assembled to hear the noted temperance apos- 
tles in the City Hall. This meeting we reproduce at 
length, as a good representative of its class during the 
whole campaign. 



402 INTEMPERANCE, 

Van Pelt was the first speaker. After some general 
arguments in favor of temperance, in which he was not 
very successful, he proceeded with an inside view of the 
campaign in New Vienna, from the saloon keepers' stand- 
point, telling how they met often to consult ; how they 
waited for the women to overstep the bounds of the law ; 
how one after another of his colleagues went over, leav- 
ing him at last alone in the fight, and how, at length, he 
saw his wretched business in its true light, and resolved 
to give it up. He gave a sample of his bravado speeches 
to the ladies, day after day, and made the statement that 
Cincinnati dealers offered to supply him with liquors for 
a year, if he would only stick it out. By way of perora- 
tion, he told the story of his surrender, which produced 
a storm of applause. The climax was impressively re- 
lated in the following words : — 

" Then I told all the men to retire, for this was the 
ladies' victory. I would surrender to no man, but to 
them ; and I took that old meat-axe that I s'pose you've 
all read of [laughter], that I had threatened the same 
ladies with, and knocked in the heads of the barrels, and 
let the old serpent flow into the gutter." 

Dr. Lewis was then introduced to the audience, and 
plunged at once into the subject, by stating that he con- 
sidered this the most important meeting ever held in 
Xenia ; " and," he continued, " I feel a deep anxiety lest 
the little I have to say shall not be well said, for this move- 
ment of the praying women of Ohio has got beyond the 
direction of any one man ; its control belongs only to 
God." Some startling statements from various judges 
were then- presented as to the proportion of crimes 
caused by intoxication, the speaker having the testimony 
of nineteen eminent jurists, none of whom were temper- 
ance men. In a meeting he attended the other day, a 
clergyman had recommended the introduction of the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 403 

light wines of France and Germany to suppress our fiery 
stimulants ; " but," said the doctor, " I would not walk 
across the street to aid any temperance reform that did 
not plant its' two feet square on the rock of total absti- 
nence. [Applause.] 

" Dr. J. G. Holland has stood for twenty years directly 
in the path of the temperance reformation of New Eng- 
land by his position on this subject. Said he, ' You are 
not going to work in the right way ; men will have stim- 
ulants of some kind ; the desire for them is as natural as 
for air and sunlight. In Southern Europe every one 
drinks his half pint or pint -of wine daily, and is the better 
for it. Let us induce our people to use these stimulants, 
and all will be well.' At last Dr. Holland went to Eu- 
rope ; and what did he see ? He is a man that 'prides 
himself on his consistency. A great deal of his time is 
taken up in proving that he does not change ; that he 
thinks just as he did seventeen hundred years ago — 
more or less. But when he got to Southern Europe, he 
took the back track for the first time, so far as I know, 
in his life. Said he, ' God forbid that the drinking cus- 
toms of my country should be changed for those of this 
land ! Bad as they are there, they are worse here.' I 
too went to Southern Europe, where men use these light 
wines. And what is the secret of their demoralization 
there ? The women drink ! ! every woman, as well as 
every man ; and during the time I was there, I never 
heard a woman decline to drink, except because of sick- 
ness ; and one hour after dinner you could see the effects 
of wine-drinking in the face and eye of every woman of 
the company. And it is only because the praying moth- 
ers and faithful wives of Ohio do not drink, that they 
hate, loathe, abhor the deadly stuff, that they fight it from 
their houses as the presence of death, that any such 
movement as this is possible." 



401 INTEMPERANCE, 

A scathing criticism of moderate drinkers followed. 
" Who," he asked, " set the example which young drink- 
ers follow ? Evidently not the drunkards, the men who 
get drunk every time they get the means ; for all classes 
look upon them as disgusting. Nor is it the middle 
class, who drink habitually, and get drunk occasion- 
ally ; for in every family and social circle you will hear 
them spoken of thus : ' Mr. A. has a good bank account 
now, but if he goes on this way five years, it won't be 
so. Mr. B.'s credit is good to-day, but he will be a pau- 
per in ten years if he don't let liquor alone.' No; no 
young man feels called on to. imitate them. No; it is 
the nice, elegant fellows, who turn up delicate cut glasses, 
and sip the finest foreign wines ; or the sturdy, honest 
old gentlemen, who take only pure Bourbon; and the 
families that keep a little cordial for sociability, or a 
bottle of brandy in the house ' for fear some one should 
be taken suddenly sick in the night.' These are the 
men who set the fashion, whose every word and motion 
was imitated. For it is but a few men who set the style 
for a place ; it is but a small number of women who de- 
termine the fashion. And there are women, and in the 
best society, — to our shame be it said, — who serve as 
agents to recruit the devil's army of drunkards. 

"Mrs. Colonel Smith smiles sweetly the 1st day of Jan- 
uary, as she says to the innocent young man who calls, 
4 Take a glass of wine with me before you go.' And 
to that young man she is a very goddess, moving before 
him in trailing clouds of beauty. The woman who 
would thus let herself down to be an enlisting officer for 
the devil's army of drunkards should be tabooed, inex- 
orably shut out from all respectable society forever." 
[Prolonged applause.] A series of interesting sketches 
followed, showing that the speaker could drop occasion- 
ally from the severe to the lively and amusing ; but 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 405 

through them all ran one general moral : There is no 
safety but in total abstinence ; and the moderate drink- 
ers set the example which makes drunkards. 

He then addressed himself to the question, " What 
shall be done ? " Nothing had ever raised communities 
to such a height of moral sublimity as this women's tem- 
perance movement of Ohio. " Three hundred times," he 
said, " have I given temperance lectures in which I urged 
this movement, and never found the soil fit for it before. 
Now that it has come, I almost fear to touch it, lest I 
hinder. When I saw the women at Morrow praying in 
front of that saloon, I felt weak ;' too weak to add any- 
thing to the power at work ; and I knew then why 
brother Van Pelt had surrendered. He must have been 
half crocodile, half tiger, and all devil, to have withstood 
it. Now, friends, the hour of action has come. I pro- 
pose this plan : We want a chairman, four secretaries, 
and ten speeches of two or three minutes each by clergy- 
men and leading citizens." 

By unanimous vote of the audience, Dr. Lewis him- 
self was made chairman, and Messrs. Dodds, Stern, Col- 
onel Finley, of the Xenia Gazette, and the Rev. Mr. 
Marley named as secretaries. Short and pointed speeches 
were then made by Rev. Mr. Bedel, of the Baptist 
church, Rev. Mr. Ralston, of the Presbyterian, Rev. J. G. 
Carson, of the United Presbyterian, Rev. Mr. Morehead, 
Mr. Starr, Mr. Shaeffer, Rev. Mr. Yockey, and Rev. Mr. 
Marley. One or two hesitated somewhat before em- 
barking in the Hillsboro' method of suppressing intem- 
perance, but the expression of the orators generally, and 
the tone of the audience, were decidedly in favor of it. 
One hundred and fifty women enlisted on the spot, and 
the meeting adjourned in a glow of enthusiasm until 
morning. 

At nine A. M. on the following day, the hall was 



406 INTEMPERANCE, 

again crowded, mostly by women, who showed by their 
countenances that the enthusiasm of the night before 
had not been slept off. The work of organization was 
again taken up, and the list of volunteers increased to 
nearly four hundred. Dr. Lewis advised a division of 
forces into four bands, who should take separate districts 
of the city. The ladies then held a private meeting, and 
adjourned until afternoon. 

Notwithstanding the work had been so auspiciously 
begun, the party of temperance missionaries went away 
with many misgivings in regard to Xenia, there seemed 
so many formidable obstacles to be overcome. It was the 
largest city yet attacked, having a population of nearly 
eight thousand. It was aristocratic, wealthy, and con- 
servative. There was a very strong element in the re- 
ligious community of United Presbyterians, who could 
not conscientiously sing a hymn, or allow a woman to 
speak in a church. How could ladies from these churches 
work harmoniously with Methodists and others ? Then 
there were half a hundred well-rooted saloons to encoun- 
ter. These and other difficulties seemed to many almost 
insurmountable. How they were swept away like chaff 
before the wind, will appear further along in this chapter. 

Springfield was the next point of attack. It was ap- 
proached with some fear on account of its size and the 
strength of the liquor interest. Up to this time the 
movement had not been attempted in any place contain- 
ing more than four thousand inhabitants, and it was de- 
clared by many that if it strove to make conquests on a 
larger scale, it would inevitably meet with olefeat. Peo- 
ple, however, who had witnessed the marked and speedy 
results of prayer in the smaller places, were sanguine 
that the same method would prevail in the cities, if fairly 
tried. Springfield contains something like fifteen thou- 
sand inhabitants, being about double the size of Xenia. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 407 

It had one hundred and thirteen saloons, besides whole- 
sale houses, breweries, and doubtful drug stores. As in 
Xenia, the ladies of the upper classes are slightly given 
to aristocratic notions, while the liquor sellers were so 
numerous as to form a society of their own, and other- 
wise unite for joint protection and resistance. It was, 
therefore, not a promising field for laborers for temper- 
ance according to the new plan, and many thought it 
would give a searching test to the efficacy of the moral 
method. 

The subject of temperance had been agitated there 
some time before Dio Lewis arrived. Six weeks pre- 
vious the movement had been set on foot mainly by 
"Mother" Stewart, under whose maternal supervision 
it had since remained. Weekly meetings had been held 
and moderately attended. The speeches were carefully 
elaborated, and the essays were of the most polished or- 
der, and all had a general tendency towards temperance ; 
but somehow the cause did not thrive. A legal cam- 
paign had been vigorously pushed by Mother Stewart. 
A vain attempt had been made to persuade the City 
Council to use their power, under a city ordinance, to 
abate the saloons as nuisances. And at last, just before 
the arrival of the Dio Lewis party, some attempts had 
been made with the praying method. But the nice 
ladies held aloof, distrustful or such strange means : the 
doubting, and well-disposed, shook their heads and said,. 
" It was of no use ; whiskey had got too strong a hold,"' 
while the saloon keepers smiled a smile of good-natured 
contempt. 

Things were about in this condition when Dio Lewis 
and Van Pelt came on the scene. The Opera House 
was crowded to hear the far-famed temperance apostles. 
On the stage were the whole party of itinerant speakers 
and journalists, together with Mother Stewart, Clifton 
25 



408 INTEMPEKANCE, 

Nichols, editor of the Republic, who acted as chairman, 
and several of the ministers and dignitaries of the town. 
Van Pelt had his say first, and improved considerably 
on his Xenia performance. The doctor followed in an 
address which was, to some extent, the same as already 
reported. The following, however, in regard to adul- 
terated liquors, excited some surprise and considerable 
applause among his hearers : — 

" He did not sympathize with the wish for pure 
liquors ; on the contrary, he considered the poison-com- 
pounder the friend of temperance. He did not know 
of any drug so deadly that it would not improve whiskey. 
He would bid the mixers God speed, if it be lawful to 
use the name of God in such a connection. There is no 
nonsense so pervading and injurious as this talk about 
unadulterated liquors. Men say, c O, if we only had the 
pure liquors that our grandfathers had, we would live 
on as they did; it is this poison stuff that kills us off.' 
It is all nonsense. The reason liquor hurts us worse 
than our grandfathers is the difference in other physical 
conditions. They worked hard in the open air, lived on 
coarse food, and though they drank often, did live out 
three fourths of their days. The men who live in the 
open air now, who start with a good constitution and 
unusual physical advantages, can live as long. Be not 
deceived ! Alcohol is poison — it is poison — it is poison. 
The more deadly it can be made, the better. If a man 
has become an habitual drinker, the sooner he dies, the 
less harm he does. Is it not better for him to go in a 
year or two, than to go on, a curse to himself and the 
world, for twenty ? If the whiskey could be so mixed 
that it would kill a man in three days, it would be a 
glorious thing for temperance." 

The speech was concluded in a blaze of enthusiasm, 
and the business meeting began. It was conducted 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 409 

in the same manner as the one at Xenia. Four secre- 
taries were named by the audience — C. H. ShaefTer, 
O. G. Hoffman, T. J. Finch, and O. D. Hawk. These 
were to name one hundred ladies from the audience, who 
would take an active part in the crusade. While this 
work was going on, Mother Stewart was called to the 
front. She said, — 

" God seems to be giving us the desire of our hearts, 
but we have a very peculiar warfare here. I cannot 
describe it. We never did anything until we started to 
work at the saloons. It seemed to me that we were 
only beating the air. Four months have passed since 
that poor woman came to me for help for herself and 
children against the rum sellers that were killing her hus- 
band. I told her to-day to come here to-night, and see 
if this meeting gave her hope ; and she is in the audience. 
At last the people are interested ; some actual drunk- 
ards, and young men, drinkers, but not yet drunkards, 
have taken my hand, and said to me, ' Go on, Mother 
Stewart ; we do hope you will succeed.' Sometimes I 
have felt so discouraged I almost wished that God would 
lay me on a bed of sickness, for I might be an obstacle 
in the way of reform. Still we worked on. I felt, when 
that poor woman came to me, that our great reliance 
must be in prayer. The great question was, Could we 
succeed in that way in this city ? At last we went forth, 
and then a host of friends seemed to spring out of the 
ground. The burden of this thing has been on my mind 
till I have felt that I could not live unless we went for- 
ward. We could not trust to other causes. The poli- 
ticians admit that they are powerless. They are so en- 
tangled that they cannot act. 

" On Monday two or three went out and prayed. 
Good women came and prayed with us; and at last, 
yesterday, we went to the saloons, twenty or thirty of 



410 INTEMPERANCE, 

us, and to-day more came — yes, seventy or eighty ; and 
you all know the result. Many gentlemen have said to 
me, ' Those places must be closed ; ' but I felt almost in 
despair when I received a telegram from Dr. Lewis. As 
our band increased, there was a great crowd of men and 
boys, but they were very polite and respectful. They 
only seemed anxious to see and hear. To-day we visited 
the Lagonda House saloon; the proprietor treated us 
very kindly, but locked the outside door to keep the 
crowd out. He gave us the billiard rooms, and we had a 
very precious season there. At the next place I tried 
to talk, a crowd collected. The man came out and said, 
4 Get away ; get away, every one of you ; I don't want 
any trespassers ; you shan't stand on my steps.' But I 
was never more composed. When I started down from 
the porch a hundred voices said, ' Stay where you are.' 
4 Go on, Mother Stewart, go on.' Then a policeman 
took the man in, and when we were ready to leave, he 
came out in good humor, and bid us good day." 

Ten minute speeches being in order, John C. Miller, 
city solicitor, General Kiefer, Rev. Mr. Bennett, Rev. Mr. 
Spring, Lr. H. Olds, and others responded to calls ; and, 
though some of them handled " this particular plan " a 
little gingerly, yet all were in favor of some decided 
movement on the subject at once. The enthusiasm on 
the subject of organization was not what it was at Xenia, 
and as soon as the meeting came to real business, the 
people seemed in a dreadful hurry to go home, and kept 
constantly leaving the hall. 

Next morning, at nine o'clock, the Central Methodist 
church presented a more encouraging picture. It was 
nearly filled with ladies, who, by their coming, indicated 
that they were ready to take hold of the work. An 
executive and advisory committee were appointed to 
subdivide forces, arrange plans, and take entire control 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 411 

of the movement. The names of four hundred and fifty 
women, ready for the work, were reported. Dio Lewis 
and Van Pelt were present. The former acted as chief 
organizer, and the latter gave an account of his expe- 
rience as a saloon keeper. Two or three men, belonging 
to good families in the city, but who had been almost 
ruined by intemperance, told the ladies that on the 
success of the movement depended their own salvation 
from rum. 

The temperance party left for Lebanon in the after- 
noon, feeling that the work had been well organized 
and well begun in Springfield, and expecting to hear, 
very soon, of grand achievements in the cause. But 
such is the weakness of human judgment. In Xenia, 
from which little was expected, a week sufficed to revo- 
lutionize the town. In Springfield, which gave such 
fair promise, the movement dragged along for months 
with no great results. 

There was a vague suspicion among the members of 
the temperance band that Lebanon was small game for 
half a dozen able-bodied men. From the account already 
given, it will be remembered that there was but a single 
saloon in town that had survived the terrors of the law, 
and the proprietor of that was selling in strict conformity 
with the law. But Dio Lewis had engaged himself to 
lecture there, and was determined to improve what 
opportunities for usefulness still remained. The keen 
scent of the reformer discovered three saloons and a dis- 
tillery in the little squad of houses that make up Deer- 
field — the railroad station of Lebanon. It struck him 
that the ladies of the latter place, having no foe to over- 
come in their own midst, might do a little excellent 
missionary work in their degenerate suburb. 

There was a large and fine-looking audience assembled 
in the evening to hear the doctor. Nate Woods, the 



412 INTEMPEKANCE, 

only remaining saloonist, himself bought five dollars' 
worth of tickets for the lecture, and distributed them 
among his friends. Van Pelt orated in the customary 
style ; Dr. Lewis was very entertaining and impressive ; 
the usual five minute speeches were extracted from 
prominent men and ministers present, and the work of 
organization was commenced. While many were doubt- 
ing whether so many ladies were needed to suppress the 
small whiskey shop that was left, and the two suspicious 
drug stores, Dr. Lewis sprang upon the audience the 
question of their interesting suburb — Deerfield. It was 
a surprise. The listeners pictured to themselves twenty 
wagon loads of Lebanon women descending from the 
steep hill upon the forsaken little town and its distillery. 
In prospect it seemed like the descent of Hannibal from 
the Alps upon the fair fields of Italy. 

A meeting was held in the Congregational church 
next morning. Dr. Lewis acted as manager, and the 
usual company of women was enlisted for service. A 
disposition was manifested to supplement the work of 
the law by a little influence of the gospel, and then, 
when the last remnant of whiskey was rooted out of 
Lebanon, to push the victorious car over the hills to 
Deerfield, and redeem that place from its load of wick- 
edness and misery. 

Nate Woods was sought. out by a reporter, and unbo- 
somed himself for the benefit of the public. He regarded 
the situation as serious, and yet hopeful. He seemed 
to be laboring under the delusion that the temperance 
cause and the Rev. Mr. Burrows were identical, and 
gave a long history of the persecutions he had suffered 
at the hands of that gentleman. When asked what he 
would do when the women came, he said he would shut 
up his shop and go home till they got through. He had 
money enough, and could stick it out as long as they 
could. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 413 

"But suppose they swoop down every time you 
open up? " 

" O," said lie, " they won't do that. They'll get tired 
of this by and by, and go home and mind their own 
business. It can't last." \ 

The next engagement of Dio Lewis was at Marysville ; 
at after an exasperating drag of twenty miles through 
the deep mud, the train was missed by a few minutes, 
and the people of Marysville had to start the temperance 
movement unaided and alone. What was their loss, 
however, proved to be Franklin's eternal gain. That 
place had been among the first to enter upon the crusade 
against saloons. Six had yielded, after an ineffectual re- 
sistance, and the women were engaged upon the last and 
worst. It was kept by one Munger, who has achieved, 
in that locality, the reputation of a Van Pelt — unre- 
generated. While the ladies were praying about 1 , tnis 
place, the temperance party drew near and listened. A 
voice — that of a young woman, almost a girl — was raised 
in prayer. It was so sweet and pure a prayer that a 
reporter telegraphed it entire to the New York Tribuntf ; 
so that thousands of readers in the east next morning: 
saw in their paper the tender, pleading words ofa" cru-\ 



sader" before an Ohio saloon. 

On the 14th and 15th of February Dr. Lewis and Van 
Pelt were in Mt. Vernon, a manufacturing town of con- 
siderable size, north-east of Columbus. There were 
twenty-eight saloons there, and the custom of drinking 
had such a strong hold upon the masses that many, even 
of the good temperance people, thought it folly to waste 
any prayers for the regeneration of Mt. Vernon. It was 
past cure. But others had faith, and among them were 
^dies belonging to the very best society of the place- 
A large band organized and entered upon the work, 
with what remarkable success will be seen at the end 
of this chapter. 



/ 



414 INTEMPERANCE, 

On the night of the 16th Dio Lewis was -booked for 
Columbus, where a great mass meeting was to be held 
with a view to inaugurating the work there. All eyes 
were turned towards Columbus for the answer to the 
question, " Can this movement succeed in large cities? " 
It was a tremendous meeting in point of size, but the 
cold, critical lookers-on seemed to outnumber and par- 
alyze the zealous advocates of the cause. As the seat 
of the state government, the city was overrun with 
politicians, who from the first looked with disfavor upon 
the woman's movement. The average politician, with- 
out the facilities of the dram shops, would find politics a 
dreary and unprofitable profession. These and certain 
other elements united to smother what little enthusiasm 
the ladies, in their private prayer meetings, had worked 
up. The verdict of the press was " failure ; " and the 
majority of people, who depend on their newspaper for , 
their opinions, straightway concluded that it was all up 
with the cities. They were mistaken, as the record of a 
succeeding chapter will show. With the Columbus ladies 
ijc was only hope deferred. The cold-blooded politicians, 
and some other disturbing elements, had checked, but by 
no means discouraged them. A great State Temperance 
Convention was appointed for the following Tuesday, 
and the meeting adjourned, after taking up a collection 
to cover expenses. One hundred dollars were called for, 
and the hats returned laden with nickels and coppers to 
the extent of eighteen or twenty dollars. The audience 
had sacrificed something over half a cent apiece ! 

From Columbus the doctor went to Washington Court 
House, where a grand thankgiving jubilee had been ar- 
ranged to celebrate the final closing out of whiskey from 
the place. He was met at the depot by a brass band 
and half the people of the town. The reception took 
place in Music Hall, and was a memorable affair in the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 415 

history of the little city. Mrs. M. G. Carpenter, wife of 
the Presbyterian minister, who had been one of the 
leaders in the movement, extended a welcome to Dr. 
Lewis in the following well-chosen words : — 

" Dr. Lewis : In the name of the women of Wash- 
ington I welcome you. Eight weeks ago, when you first 
came among us, you found us a people of willing hearts 
and generous impulses, fully alive to the evils of intem- 
perance, but needing the magnetism of a master mind to 
rouse us into a determined resistance to its ravages. 
Yours was that mind. Your hand pointed out the way. 
You vitalized our latent activities ; you roused us all, men 
and women together, and we have gone forth to the battle 
side by side, as God intended we should ; ourselves per- 
fect weakness, but God mighty in strength. He has 
given the success — not yet complete, 'tis true, but our 
faith is still unshaken. He sent you here ; He put the 
thought into your head ; He prepared our hearts to re- 
ceive it ; He has directed our steps. And now He has 
brought you among us again to gladden you with the 
fruition of hope long deferred — -to see the seed, sown 
long ago by your mother, springing up, budding, and 
bearing fruit. Dr. Lewis, in behalf of this whole peo- 
ple, I again welcome you to the hearts and homes of 
Washington." 

Dr. Lewis replied : — 

" Madam and Friends : I cannot make a speech on 
this occasion. I may, perhaps, compare myself to an In- 
dian on a visit to the city of Washington — from the 
frontier to the place where the battle has long been 
fought and won. I have always been on the frontier, 
always engaged in the battle of reform ; and now, to 
find any thing really done, to find a town positively free 
from the curse of liquor selling, it seems that there is 
nothing for me to do. I feel as one without his working 
harness. But I will say this : None but God can ever 
know how much I owe to this town, nor how fortunate 
it was for me and for many that I came here, I will not 



416 INTEMPERANCE, 

say that this is the only community in which the work 
could be begun. The heroism and self-sacrifice dis- 
played in other places, the moral force developed in 
Southern Ohio, would make such a remark invidious. 
Often have I tried to start this movement — once in par- 
ticular, in one of the most moral towns in New England. 
Two United States senators came upon the platform to 
give the movement their sanction. We had as fine an 
audience as could be assembled, and I said to myself, 
4 At last we are going to succeed.' But it was a dead 
failure.. I know not why. All the elements of success 
seemed to be there ; but some invisible force was lack- 
ing. There is an invisible force at work in this movement. 
At last I came to you, and you delighted me by your 
work. You came out to meet me with music and words 
of welcome. But I come to thank you, to take you by 
the hands, to look into your eyes, and tell you how much 
I owe to you for being the first to cheer me with suc- 
cess. I am indebted to you for bringing out this plan. 
I am indebted to you a thousand times more than you 
are to me. But the hour of victory leaves me with little 
to say. I have never been able to visit the battle-fields 
after victory — have always gone on to new fields. I can 
only close by tendering you my earnest thanks." 

Further festivities of a mild nature followed, after 
which Dr. Lewis took leave of the town that won the 
first complete victory under his system, and from there 
went to Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati, at which 
latter city he delivered a regular lyceum lecture. Sun- 
day was spent in advising and encouraging the labor- 
ers at Hillsboro' ; and on Monday the original party, Van 
Pelt excepted, found itself reunited and headed for Del- 
aware, a quiet little city in Central Ohio, the seat of 
the Ohio Wesleyan University, and the home of Apollo 
and the Muses. 

On Monday the women of Delaware had no thought 
of inaugurating the praying movement ; twenty-four 
hours later they were thoroughly organized, and had en- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 417 

tered upon the work in a glow of enthusiasm. Dr. Lewis 
was invited to lecture, not by the citizens, but by one 
or two students of the Chi Phi fraternity, who were also 
perfectly guiltless of any intention of improving the 
morals of the town. A large audience assembled in the 
Opera House to hear the lecture, and almost before they 
knew it, they were fairly imbued with the new idea. 
They came for an evening's entertainment, and went 
away pledged " crusaders." Next clay a large meeting 
was held at the Williams Street M. E. church, where a 
permanent and effective organization was formed. Mrs. 
A. S. Clason was made President, and Mrs. Bishop 
Thompson Secretary. The most cultivated and influ- 
ential ladies came promptly forward, and went to work 
with an intelligence of purpose and strength of determi- 
nation that spoke the inevitable doom of the thirty-three 
saloons that flourished in their midst. 

The temperance apostles reached Columbus next day 
just in time for the great convention, to which all work- 
ers in the cause had been invited. The proceedings of 
this and other conventions, during the progress of the 
movement, will be found in a succeeding chapter. 

We have left the movement fairly inaugurated at a 
number of interesting points, some full of promise, and 
others of discouragement. It may be well to go back, 
and, in the light of subsequent events, review the prog- 
ress of the work. 

Xenia was the first place where Dio Lewis tried his 
skill as an organizer. The elements of opposition were 
so plentiful that a stranger, on the morning Dio Lewis 
left, would have said there was not a ghost of a chance 
of success. One week later the writer returned, and 
spent three days in the place. The very atmosphere 
seemed to be changed. The excitement was as intense 
as at any time during the war. In business, in society, 



418 INTEMPERANCE, 

on the streets, everywhere, temperance was the all-pre- 
vailing topic of conversation. Hundreds of women, 
divided into several bands, were praying daily before 
the saloons. The morning meetings in the churches 
were crowded with men and women, and the most in- 
tense interest was manifested in every part of the pro- 
ceedings. While these meetings were in progress, the 
stores were closed, and business generally suspended. 

It was remarkable, most of all, to notice how the bar- 
riers of society and denominationalism were broken down. 
All churches and all classes of society were united in the 
movement. People who, a week before, would have 
counted it a sin to sing out of any but Rouse's version, 
now joined lustily in the old Methodist hymns. One 
prominent member of the U. P. church remarked that 
she "had got all over her old notions about singing 
psalms, and women speaking in churches. If anybody 
wanted to discipline her, they might ; she would speak 
or pray when she felt like it, and sing whatever was 
started." In society it was the same way. Every lady 
in town, except one, belonging to what is known as " the 
first circles," was active in the movement, and on the 
streets daily. That one was sick, and could not. The 
leaders, among whom might be mentioned Mrs. Monroe, 
Mrs. Finley, Mrs. Lowe, and others, seemed, from their 
good sense, high standing, and zealous devotion, admi- 
rably adapted to the great work before them, 
i There was one saloon, known as the " Shades of Death," 
which, in the early stages of the movement, was the 
centre of attack. Notwithstanding its notoriousl}- bad 
character, its proprietor was a young man, named Phillips, 
who had been well* brought up, and who seemed to have 
a few traces of self-respect remaining. Day after day 
the ladies had patiently prayed and pleaded with the 
man, but apparently to no purpose. Whenever they 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 419 

attempted to enter, he would thrust them out, good- 
naturedly, sometimes, but always determinedly. But 
one afternoon the church bells set up a deafening clamor. 
People rushed about the streets in great excitement, 
spreading the news that the " Shades of Death " had 
surrendered. Cheer after cheer rose upon the air from 
the vicinity of the saloon. Hastening to the spot with 
the crowds of people that were flocking in from all direc- 
tions, the writer witnessed a remarkable scene. There 
had been an unconditional surrender on the part of the 
young saloonist, and a genuine " pouring out " of his 
liquors. The doxology had just been sung by the crowd, 
as though they intended it to be heard a mile, and special 
emphasis was laid upon the last word of the first line. 
The ladies, with tearful eyes but stout hands, had rolled 
out the barrels. One of them tugged away at a faucet 
for dear life, and when it would not come, she seized a 
stone, and went at it with an energy that soon sent the 
beverage reeking through the gutter. The mingled 
fumes of whiskey and beer filled the air, and people fell 
on each other's necks and wept. It was unanimously 
voted on the spot to encourage Phillips in any legitimate 
business he might undertake ; and now a well-patron- 
ized meat market takes the place of the old traffic in 
whiskey. The same night two other saloons surren- 
dered ; next day, two or three more ; and so on, day after 
day, until the whole forty were reduced to half a dozen, 
which still hold out, and will have to be brought to 
terms by law. 

At Springfield the women continued the campaign of 
prayer ; but somehow the cause did not seem to prosper. 
At Lebanon Nate Woods resisted for a while, but at 
length shut up his saloon, and left town to " wait till the 
storm should blow over." At Delaware the work was- 
carried on vigorously. Part of the saloons yielded to 



420 INTEMPERANCE, 

persuasion, and the remainder were closed by the en- 
forcement of the city ordinance. 

Mt. Vernon was revolutionized almost as speedily as 
Xenia. It is a city of about the same size, and much 
the same characteristics. The women enlisted in large 
numbers, and soon became a power that nothing could 
resist. Saloon after saloon melted away before them. 
Ten days sufficed to reduce the number from twenty- 
eight to a dozen ; and it was not long before all, except 
a few doggeries of the lowest character, were shut up. 
The leading saloon keeper, who was among the first to 
surrender, was one McFealey, known to convivial spirits 
throughout all that section of country. His place was a 
favorite resort for Kenyon College boys, who came down 
from Gambier to shake off the cares of learning and 
drown them in the flowing bowl. A few days after he 
had run up the white flag, a couple of correspondents 
walked in to interview him. They were met with a 
cordial shake, and, — * . 

• " Have a glass of ginger ale, or lemonade, gentlemen ? 
We don't keep anything stronger now." 

Over this mild refreshment, he explained how he con- 
ducted his business since whiskey was thrown overboard, 
and what he thought of the temperance movement. 

"I don't know what it is to be converted," said he, 
" but from what I have heard people say, I think I feel 
something like that. I never was so happy in my life 
as since I quit selling whiskey. Before, I used to cross 
the street, when I saw a lady coming whom I happened 
to know, to save her the embarrassment of recognizing 
a saloon keeper publicly. Now all that feeling is gone, 
and I feel that I am as good as anybody." 

He was running a restaurant and billiard room on the 
temperance plan, and so great had been the increase of 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 423 

his respectable patrons, that he was doing a better busi- 
ness than he had ever done before. 

And so the work was going on in scores of towns, of 
which there is hardly space here to mention the names. 
At the time Dio Lewis returned to the east, the tele- 
graph and mails were bringing to the daily papers re- 
ports of progress from nearly every part of the state. 
Besides the hundreds of saloons closed, and thousands 
of individuals pledged to total abstinence, there were 
indirect results none the less important. A strong pop- 
ular feeling was growing up against drinking in every 
form, and against the men who enrich themselves by the 
misery and degradation of their fellow-creatures. Indi- 
viduals were being saved from habits of self-destruction ; 
and perhaps more important than any of these, the minds 
of the young were moulded into a love for the principles 
of temperance. 



424 INTEMPEEA^CE. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE MOVEMENT SPREADS TO INDIANA. — SHELBYVILLE THE FIRST POINT 
ASSAILED. — A JUVENILE SPREE THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE. — THE HOME 
OF THE AUTHOR OF THE BAXTER LAW. — NOBLE WORK OF THE QUA- 
KER LADIES OF RICHMOND. — SUDDEN UPRISING IN FORT WAYNE. — 
HOW THE INDIANAPOLIS WOMEN DIRECTED THEIR ENERGIES. — PRAYER 
AND THE BAXTER LAW JOIN HANDS. 

The work so auspiciously begun in Ohio early spread 
into Indiana. The conditions being very similar, the 
plan of operations was but slightly modified. The 
ladies in Southern Indiana took to the praying method 
with much the same readiness and determination as 
their sisters across the line. They did not have the 
personal presence and counsel of the commander-in- 
chief, in consequence of which operations were begun 
in some places somewhat irregularly. The very impor- 
tant accessories of large numbers, of social prestige, and 
of a favorable popular sentiment, which were so marked 
in some of the Ohio cities, seemed wanting, to some 
extent, in Indiana. The pioneers in the movement, in 
the southern part of the state, were very largely Quaker 
ladies, who waited not for organization, or any pro- 
nounced backing on the part of the general public. 
They had faith to believe that God would .send them 
numbers and strength as the work progressed. 

The campaign in Indiana was inaugurated at Shelby- 
ville on the 28th of January. The immediate cause of 
the uprising of the women was a drunken spree of a 
couple of youths between seventeen and eighteen years 



ITS ASPECT AND -ITS REMEDY. 425 

old, who belonged to the most pious and respectable 
families of the town. One of them purchased liquor on 
the plea that it was for family use, and, together with a 
comrade who was not so new to the business, they 
launched out upon a bacchanalian revelry that would 
have done credit to old and accomplished soakers. 
Their pursuit of pleasure led them to a house of bad 
repute, where their drunken orgies attracted the atten- 
tion of the officers, who arrested them. Their pious 
mothers and friends were horrified at the excesses of 
the boys ; and so great was the feeling upon the subject, 
especially among the women, that a "mothers' meeting" 
was held at the close of the prayer meeting on the even- 
ing of the 20th. The cause of the trouble was traced 
directly to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and, as in the 
similar case recounted by Dio Lewis, they resolved to 
devote their earnest and prayerful efforts to the sup- 
pression of intemperance. 

The next morning another meeting was held. Soon 
after, a committee of ladies waited on Mr. Schrader, 
whose permit to sell liquor had just expired, and asked 
him not to renew it. He replied that he would quit if 
the others would ; and so the ladies were led almost in- 
evitably into the work of visiting saloons. But the sa- 
loon keepers all met them with the remark, " Go to the 
druggists. They are the ones that are responsible for 
the most drunkenness." Accordingly the. women went 
to the drug stores, where tippling of a respectable kind 
was encouraged. There were six of them, and, with 
one exception, they positively refused to sign. It was 
understood that the traffic in liquors, wholesale and 
retail, formed the most profitable part of their business- 
Bach one would throw whiskey overboard if all the rest 
would ; but that was a promise which they knew they 
were perfectly safe in making. 
26 



426 INTEMPERANCE, 

On the 26th of January, over a hundred women met 
at the Baptist church, and organized the " Woman's 
Temperance Alliance," with the following named offi- 
cers : Mrs. John Elliott, President ; Mrs. Harrison, 
Vice-President ; Mrs. Hattie Robbins, Secretary ; and 
Mrs. Mattie S. Thompson, Assistant Secretary. An 
appeal to the public was drafted, asking for assistance 
in the good work of temperance reform. But this 
method was not deemed sufficiently speedy and certain, 
and it was resolved by a large majority to proceed to the 
saloons in a body. George Deprez was first to receive 
attention. He admitted them readily, and a prayer 
meeting was held. When talked with directly upon the 
subject, Mr. Deprez responded that he was a member, in 
good standing, of the Presbyterian church, and hoped 
thereby to obtain eternal happiness. Next day they 
proceeded to other saloons ; but the proprietors gener- 
ally met them at the door with the remark that their 
house was kept for other purposes than prayer, and, if 
the ladies wanted room for such exercises, they could 
have the churches and the highway. 

But the band of praying women increased in size, and 
grew strong in faith and courage. They went on in the 
crusade against saloons from day to day, meeting with 
varying successes. A number of saloon keepers were 
induced to quit the business ; men were led back from 
the very gutter into ways of sobriety ; and a feeling was 
created in the public mind which will render the en- 
forcement of the law a more certain and easy process. 

The following incident is related as occurring in one 
of the saloons at Shelbyville : A man went in to get a 
drink of whiskey. While standing at the bar, the wife 
of the liquor seller called her husband to come to 
dinner. 

" What have you got for dinner ? " he asked. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 427 

" Roast goose," she replied, naming several other good 
dishes* 

"Have you any apple-sauce ? " he inquired with in- 
terest, adding, " I like apple-sauce with roast goose." 

" No, but I will soon have some," was the answer. 

And the man at the bar, waiting for his dram, thought 
to himself, " What has my family for dinner to-day ? 
This man has roast goose and apple-sauce, and my fam- 
ily have none. I will furnish no more money for him to 
buy roast goose and apple-sauce." 

About two weeks later, Jeffersonville was seized by 
the same epidemic. Two hundred ladies formed an or- 
ganization, and began the usual street operations. They 
were followed by crowds that sometimes became so noisy 
as to compel them to suspend their efforts for a time. 
In Muncie, Kokomo, and many smaller places, the 
movement was started in a similar way. 

In Richmond, a staid Quaker city of twelve or fifteen 
thousand inhabitants, the work was quietly inaugurated 
late in February. A few determined Quaker ladies first 
started the street movement, but they rapidly gained in 
numbers until all the churches were represented in the 
ranks. Richmond is the home of William Baxter, au- 
thor of the Baxter law, and is therefore a good point 
from which to view the effects of that enactment, It 
will be remembered that the law provides that no man 
may keep a saloon or sell intoxicating liquors until he 
has secured the signatures of a majority of the voters in 
his ward or township to a petition asking for such saloon. 
He is required to furnish bondsmen, who shall be liable 
for any violation of the law on his part, and, further- 
more, the property on which the liquor is sold is liable, 
as under the Adair law in Ohio. As may be readily 
seen, not one saloon keeper in twenty can comply with 
all of these conditions and carry on a profitable business. 



428 INTEMPERANCE, 

The consequence is, that in that city, out of the thirty- 
one registered saloons, but a single one was licensed 
under the Baxter law, the business of the other thirty 
being carried on in direct violation of it. The law is 
ineffective in the cities, simply because it is almost im- 
possible to secure direct evidence against any of these 
places. Men who drink will not swear to it, and thus 
dry up the source from which they expect to get more. 
And if by any means a witness is secured, he is bought 
off, if there is money enough in the treasury of the 
liquor sellers' association to do it. It is very different, 
however, in the country districts. There hundreds of 
saloons were closed up by the law, and will remain closed 
as long as it exists. A majority of the voters in country 
townships is generally found to be opposed to whiskey 
selling, while, from their detached locations, the whiskey 
sellers cannot combine to override the law. 

At the present writing, all the druggists are pledged, 
and about two thirds of the thirty-one saloons mentioned 
have either succumbed to law, or to the prayers of the 
women. Not less than seven of these yielded to the 
simple influence of prayer, and some of them are now 
zealous advocates of temperance. The finest saloon in 
Richmond was kept by one McCoy. It was called " The 
Continental," the word being displayed in a many- 
colored arch over the door. But McCoy surrendered to 
the ladies, and now a cross-bar, underneath the arch, 
bears the word "Market." Twenty gentlemen sub- 
scribed fifty dollars each, and loaned him that amount 
to set him up in business. August Woeste poured out 
his liquors unconditionally, and was rewarded with the 
proceeds of a public supper given in his establishment. 

Thomas Lichtenfels, however, surrendered under the 
most interesting and dramatic circumstances. He had 
always prided himself on selling strictly according to 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 429 

law, had a regular license under the Baxter bill, obtained 
without fraud, and never sold to drunken men or minors. 
As the lower class saloons surrendered, one after an- 
other, their customers centred upon him ; and, though 
he was taking in money twice as fast as ever before, he' 
felt a growing disgust at the character of his patrons. 
At length the ladies began to visit his saloon, and remain 
some time each visit. One afternoon he undertook to 
shut them out, and half a dozen who had entered were 
imprisoned from four o'clock till nine P. M. with the 
rudest crowd the city could furnish. The rowdies ex- 
hausted their resources in attempts to frighten and 
browbeat the ladies without actual violence ; and for a 
while it looked as if they would not hesitate at that. 
They called for beer as fast as two persons could hand it 
out to them, quoted Scripture in blasphemous mockery, 
and parodied the songs sung by the ladies. Finally they 
raised a cloud of tobacco smoke so dense and sickening 
that it drove out two of the ladies, but the others stood 
it like heroines. They did not attempt any religious 
exercises, but continued most of the time in silent 
prayer. Before the evening was over, the proprietor 
was heartily ashamed of his patrons. Precisely at nine 
o'clock he announced that the ""time had come to shut 
up, according to law " (the Baxter bill directs that all 
saloons shall close at that hour), and turned off the gas. 
He followed the ladies into the street, shook hands with 
them all, and said, " This is the last day I will open a 
saloon ; this is too much for me." The next day he did 
not open, and is now preparing to move West. 

Fort Wayne has a population of about twenty-two 
thousand, and there is probably not a city in the state 
that does a larger liquor business, in proportion to its 
size. The Germans compose about one third of the 
population, and are, almost to a man, bitterly opposed 



430 INTEMPEKANCE, 

to the woman's movement. Then, in addition to this, 
the Christian people of the community were indifferent 
and inactive on the subject of temperance long after 
their brethren and sisters, all about them, were in the 
* field. But at last there was an awakening. Though it 
came late, the city was aroused from centre to circum- 
ference. For twenty years the dram shops had ruled 
the town, and there were not a hundred respectable peo- 
ple to contest their sway ; but almost in a day all this 
was changed. The first public meeting was held about 
the middle of March, and within a week there was a 
powerful central organization, and branches extending 
into every ward in the city. 

The plan of operations adopted by the women differed 
in some essential particulars from that generally fol- 
lowed. Instead of praying in saloons and on the streets, 
they resolved to hold regular morning prayer meetings 
in the churches, and then start out upon the work of 
the day. That work, it was decided, should consist of 
visits to every citizen, to secure the pledges of voters not 
to sign any more petitions for permits under the Baxter 
law, not to lease property to liquor sellers, and to refrain 
from drinking themselves. They also circulated the 
druggists' pledge, which was largely signed. As can 
readily be seen, this course, persistently carried out by 
the active organizations in every ward, soon rendered it 
impossible for a saloon keeper to renew his permit, ac- 
cording to the requirements of the law. A lawyer was 
employed to give his whole attention to the business, 
and thus prevent the perpetration of any frauds by the 
saloon keepers, many of whom had already forfeited 
their licenses by selling liquor on Sundays and after 
nine o'clock at night. Committees were appointed to 
gather evidence, and the men put their hands in their 
pockets liberally to back any prosecutions that might be 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 431 

begun. Under this strange combination of the law and 
the gospel, the influence of the whiskey element gradu- 
ally wasted away. The Sundays — hitherto a boisterous 
holiday — became quiet, and the nights were once more 
free from the sounds of revelry. Unable to renew their 
licenses, and afraid to continue selling without them, the 
dram sellers are one by one dropping off, and seeking 
other employment. If this work, so energetically be- 
gun, is patiently and persistently carried forward, there 
is no doubt that the curse of intemperance, if not wholly 
swept from the city, may at least be restricted to very 
narrow limits. 

The Christian women of Indianapolis became inter- 
ested quite early in the campaign. The first to move in 
the matter were Quaker ladies, but they were soon re- 
enforced from other denominations, and the movement 
acquired a strength that was felt and acknowledged. 
The high respectability of those connected with it will 
be seen from the following list of officers of the " Wo- 
man's Christian Temperance Union : " President, Mrs. 
Delitha Harvey ; Secretary, Miss Auretta Hoyt ; Cor- 
responding Secretary, Miss Gertie Holliday ; Treasurer, 
Mrs. Carrie Evans. There are also prominent in the 
work Mrs. Hannah T. Hadley, Mrs. Elizabeth Jenkins, 
Mrs. J. Trueblood, Mrs. Bartlett, Mrs. Bayliss, Mrs. 
Wingate, Mrs. Boggs, Mrs. Townsend, Mrs. Stagg, Mrs. 
W. A. Holliday, Mrs. Israel Taylor, and others. While 
prayer was to be relied upon as the chief weapon in 
the warfare, these ladies determined not to employ it 
in the same manner as their sisters in the Ohio cities. 
The direction which the movement took was towards the 
County Commissioners, before whom came the petitions 
for saloons, under the Baxter law. These documents 
are examined by them, and, if found satisfactory, the 
permit is at once issued. But this system had, in the 



432 INTEMPERANCE, 

large cities, and especially in Indianapolis, degenerated 
into the most notorious farce. Under the old law, every 
liquor seller was compelled to pay a round sum for a 
license. Now, all he had to do when he wanted a new 
permit, or his old one renewed, was to hire a man to go 
out and get the required number of signatures ; and it 
was remarkable how readily that number was always 
obtained. The graveyards were generally well repre- 
sented, and the list was further ornamented with the 
names of plenty of fictitious persons, non-residents, 
minors, and others, with an occasional property-holder 
or two thrown in to give character to the thing. When 
these palpably fraudulent lists were presented to the 
commissioners, there was no one to call in question their 
genuineness; and they were generally passed upon with- 
out any objection being raised. 

Here, the ladies perceived, was an opportunity for use- 
fulness. They could be present at the examination of 
these petitions, and, with very little evidence, expose 
their fraudulent character. Accordingly, one day, the 
sedate commissioners were surprised in their delibera- 
tions by a band of these women, who came in in the 
interests of temperance. The session was opened by 
prayer, permission to pray having been granted, and 
then the batch of documents passed under the scrutiny 
of these zealous women and their legal adviser, with the 
most alarming results to the whiskey fraternity. Out of 
twenty-four petitions presented, only four stood the 
test, and were passed upon. 

The ladies then turned their prayerful attention to 
the enforcement of the existing provisions of the Baxter 
law, especially those in regard to liquor selling on Sun- 
day and after nine o'clock at night. As in most of the 
large cities of the country, the saloons hardly made a 
^pretence of closing on Sunday ; and as for the nine 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 433 

o'clock provision, a good share of the money taken in 
passed over the counter after that hour of night. The 
temperance movement had not proceeded far before 
there was a public sentiment which demanded of the 
city authorities the execution of the law in these re- 
spects. An order was issued to that effect, and the 
result was, the next Sunday was the quietest ever 
known in Indianapolis. 

Three objects, then, were the aim of the women of 
Indianapolis — first, to arouse public sentiment ; second, 
to persuade men, by the power of Christianity, to give 
up the sale and use of intoxicating liquors ; and, third, 
to enforce the Baxter law. To illustrate how successful 
they were in their first object, a union mass prayer meet- 
ing, held early in March in the Academy of Music, was 
crowded to excess, and upwards of a thousand people 
were turned away unable to get in. A similar meeting 
was in progress at the Third Presbyterian church, and 
was crowded in the same manner. A month before, it 
would have been difficult to get together a corporal's 
guard to talk or hear about temperance. Though the 
movement took a somewhat legal turn, it never for a 
moment lost its eminently religious character. Every 
meeting, for whatever purpose called, was opened by 
prayer, and, in most of the meetings, religious exercises 
were the chief feature. At present, the organization of 
the women has reached almost absolute perfection. Its 
ramifications extend into every ward, street, alley, and 
house in the city ; and so well do the ward associations 
fulfil their mission, that the men who sign petitions and 
those who circulate them are getting to be a distinct 
race. Those engaged in the movement belong to no 
particular religious sect or political party. Episcopali- 
ans and Methodists, Democrats and Republicans, all 
stand upon a common platform, and battle with a com- 
mon enemy. 



434 INTEMPERANCE, 

These features, which are so prominent in the capital 
city, are characteristic, to a greater or less extent, of the 
work throughout the state. At Lawrenceburg, Union 
City, Bedford, Madison, Greenfield, Wabash, Warsaw, 
Lafayette, Kokomo, Logansport, Terre Haute, and in 
scores of the smaller towns, the praying method and the 
Baxter law have joined-hands. The deficiencies of the 
one are supplemented by the strong points of the other, 
and the result is a combination so powerful that few of 
the saloons can stand up against it. It will require the 
most persistent watching on the part of the women to 
see that the demands of the law are fully met ; but they 
have pledged eternal vigilance and prayerfulness, which 
alone are the price of their liberty. If this work in 
Indiana is carried forward for a few months longer with 
the same wisdom and zeal that have characterized it thus 
far, popular sentiment on the subject of temperance will 
reach a point where most of the saloon keepers will find 
it profitable to go out of the business. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 435 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT IN THE LARGE CITIES. — DIFFERENT CONDI- 
TIONS IN CITY AND COUNTRY. — THE EXPERIMENT FIRST TRIED IN 
DAYTON. — HEROISM OF THE PRAYING BANDS, AND INSULTING CON- 
DUCT OF THE MOB. — EXCITEMENT PRODUCED BY THE CAMPAIGN IN 
COLUMBUS. — DISCOURAGEMENTS FROM EVERY QUARTER. — PRAYER 
MEETING IN THE CAPITOL. — HOW THE MUNICIPAL CODE WAS SAVED 
INTACT. — THE CRUSADE IN CLEVELAND. — CINCINNATI A FORMIDA- 
BLE POINT. — THE THREE STAGES OF THE MOVEMENT THERE. — IN- 
TENSE OPPOSITION OF THE LIQUOR SELLERS AND GERMANS. — THE 
CHURCHES PUT TO GOOD USE. — PROCLAMATION OF THE MAYOR, ETC. 

Early in the progress of this remarkable movement, 
the problem of the large cities began to excite interest. 
" The praying plan will do well enough for small towns," 
people said, "but when it comes to the large cities, — 
Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, — why, it's folly 
to think about it ! " On the other hand, many enthusi- 
astic friends of the- cause firmly believed that it would 
triumph everywhere and under all circumstances, and 
would soon sweep the whole curse of liquor from the 
land. Then there was a large middle class., who believed 
that just so far as the movement went, it would do good, 
and that therefore it was the duty of all to give the 
women every encouragement, and make the reform ex- 
tend as far as possible. If it was effective in driving 
out the saloons and reforming drunkards in the small 
towns, it would be a great work ; and if anything could 
be done in the cities, there was so much the more to be 
thankful for. 

It will very readily be seen that the conditions of sue- 



436 INTEMPERANCE, 

cess in a small town and in a large city are very differ- 
ent. In the former, the saloon keeper forms a part of 
the social fabric, and is more or less dependent on the 
esteem of his more respectable fellow-citizens. Unless 
he is on good terms with his neighbors, he is doomed to 
an isolaticfh that soon becomes positively unendurable. 
Whiskey sellers are much like other men in human in- 
stincts and pride. The taunts thrust by schoolmates 
upon their children, and the moral aversion of the com- 
munity to themselves, cut more deeply than is generally 
supposed. In the city, on the contrary, the saloon keep- 
ers are so numerous as to form independent business and 
social combinations. If the better class of people look 
down upon them, it makes very little difference with 
their profits, or enjoyment of life. They are courted 
and paid by politicians. They are winked at by the au- 
thorities. They wear good clothes and drive fine horses, 
and the pleasures which wealth can purchase amply 
compensate for all the loss of social prestige. 

There are other things which render success less diffi- 
cult in the country towns. There the women know the 
character and surroundings of each of the saloon keep- 
ers with whom they have to deal, and can therefore ap- 
proach them more intelligently, and consequently more 
effectively. The ladies themselves, also, are acquainted 
with each other, and readily unite in the work. But in 
the cities, society is divided up into grades and cliques, 
which can no more combine than oil and water. Ladies 
hardly know their next-door neighbors, and are always 
afraid of them until they become well acquainted. Then 
the ramifications of the liquor interests are so wide- 
spread, and have so important an influence in all 
branches of trade, that business men are afraid to de- 
clare their principles. And so it is impossible for tem- 
perance men to separate themselves from all restraints, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 437 

and unite themselves in opposition to the power of 
whiskey. 

In view of all these facts, the friends of the cause 
awaited the result of the experiment in the cities with 
beating hearts. It "early b.ecame apparent that that ex- 
periment would be made. Dio Lewis boldly declared 
that one hundred women from each church, in any city, 
bound together by the same Christian faith and zeal, 
would drive out the* rum shops just as speedily and as 
surely as had been done in Washington and Wilmington. 
God's arm was not shortened, that it could not save big 
towns as well as small ones, and prayer was just as effec- 
tive ascending from the stone pavement in the city as 
from some obscure cross-roads in the country. 

The first city of any size to begin the women's cru- 
sade was Dayton. The work had just been inaugurated 
in several cities of intermediate size, such as Xenia, Mt. 
Vernon, Springfield, &c, when Dio Lewis came there. 
Dayton is a manufacturing town of about forty thousand 
inhabitants, laid out in broad, beautiful streets, and built 
up with substantial residences and business blocks which 
betoken wealth and luxury. How many of those hand- 
some stone fronts were reared on the tears and groans 
of widows and orphans, any old citizen can tell. Large 
distilleries in the city and vicinity have been a prominent 
source of the wealth concentrated there. Add to this 
that the people were conservative and aristocratic, and 
the result would hardly seem favorable for the introduc- 
tion of the praying plan of overthrowing saloons, of 
which there were over five hundred. 

But the movement was started. A little band of 
temperance women began to pray together, and it was 
not long before their numbers and spirit had grown too 
large to be contained within narrow church walls. A 
temperance mass meeting was held in Music Hall, pre- 



438 INTEMPEKANCE, 

sided over by Dio Lewis, and on the next day, Februa- 
ry 20, a permanent organization was formed. A vice- 
president from each church in the city was appointed, 
who formed a committee for the arrangement of work. 
It was decided, however, not .to move at once upon the 
saloons, but, by prayer and private endeavor, to make a 
more thorough preparation for the task of regenerating 
the morals of the city. After a few days spent in this 
manner, a number of ladies went quietly, in small com- 
mittees, to many of the saloons, and gave the proprietors 
an opportunity to yield gracefully in advance.* But 
there was not much inclination thus to yield. More 
vigorous measures, therefore, became necessary. After 
a few more mass meetings and days of prayer, two hun- 
dred women were enlisted for active service, and the 
band felt strong enough for an aggressive move. On 
the morning of the 6th of March, two companies were 
designated, under the leadership of Mrs. Weakley and 
Mrs. J. Harry Thomas, respectively, to visit the saloons. 
There were twenty-two in each band, and they started 
out with a firm step ; but beneath their water-proof 
cloaks their hearts throbbed anxiously. The rain was 
falling steadily, and as the women huddled together 
under their umbrellas, and offered up their earnest 
prayers, the crowd recognized their heroism by deco- 
rous behavior. Saloon after saloon was visited, services 
generally being held before the doors ; and at last one 
man, who had a light stock of liquors, offered to surren- 
der if they would pay him first cost. The vile com- 
pounds were then emptied into the gutter, amid much 
rejoicing. In the afternoon the two bands exchanged 
territory, so that the same saloons received two visits. 

The excitement now began to increase. The bands in- 
creased in numbers, and more favorable weather brought 
out great crowds of people to witness the strange specta- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 439 

cle of women actually praying on the streets. The rab- 
ble began to grow turbulent and threatening. Saloon 
keepers saw the matter was ^putting on a serious aspect, 
and fought every inch of ground by the most unscrupu- 
lous means. It soon came to be. known that the visit of 
the ladies to a saloon meant free beer and whiskey at 
that place, and there " the boys " rallied in force, like 
vultures over a dead carcass. The result was, more 
drunken men on the streets than had been seen since 
the Fourth of July ; and, as if this roundabout warfare 
was not sufficient, direct insults were heaped upon the 
ladies. The voices of prayer and song were drowned 
by those of ribaldry and blasphemy. Bits of bologna 
and crackers were thrown at the kneeling women, who 
bore these indignities meekly and with no word of re- 
proof. One of the worst elements in these noisy mobs 
was the women, mostly of foreign nationalities, who 
joined their screaming to the shouting and swearing of 
their male relatives. 

The result of this. unseemly mocking and jeering was 
to inflame the public mind, and bring thousands out to 
the evening mass meetings, where reports of the day's 
proceedings were read and commented upon. Under 
such dire 'persecutions the bands steadily increased in 
size, and grew more determined. Says a correspond- 
ent, — 

" The women form for action near the curbstone, and 
are speedily encompassed by the crowd, who watch with 
varying manifestations and emotions. Lines of men file 
into the bars to quench real or affected thirst, and the 
clink of foaming glasses chimes in with the soft, pathetic 
notes of the worshipping women. But the plaintive 
voice of prayer, when the women on bended knees sup- 
plicate the mercy of God, produces an instant and inde- 
scribable hush even in the bar-rooms ; and as the elo- 



440 INTEMPERANCE, 

quent pleadings ascend, the influence quickly strikes the 
nearest rank of spectators, and penetrates to the outer- 
most rim of the ragged semicircle formed about them. 
There are moments, when the women weep and pray, 
that their influence is thrillingly impressive, and men 
even who do not approve of the saloon devotions are 
unconsciously but irresistibly affected. Excepting among 
the depraved, there is not the remotest suggestion of 
levity in the scene. It is touchingly solemn." 

For nearly a month, operations on this plan continued 
with little variation. As the novelty wore off, the 
crowds of spectators decreased somewhat, and the op- 
position seemed to be dying out. But it still had a most 
vigorous life ; and when, on the 6th of April, the muni- 
cipal election came on, the work of the bummers was 
brought to the surface. The whiskey candidate for 
mayor (Butz) was found to be elected over the temper- 
ance candidate (Houk) by a large majority ; and whis- 
key councilmen were put in office, to see that no trouble- 
some McConnelsville ordinance should vex the peace of 
the saloon keepers. This was taken as a verdict for free 
whiskey ; and next morning, when the women reported 
at Grace church for active duty, they were astounded 
by the following proclamation, which emanated from the 
Board of Police Commissioners : — 

Whereas it has become apparent to this board that 
the visits of the recently organized bands of ladies to 
the various saloons in the city, and the occupation by 
them of the sidewalks and streets for religious exercises, 
have, on several occasions, attracted large crowds of riot- 
ous and disorderly persons, who assembled in the vicinity 
in such numbers as seriously to threaten the peace and 
good order of the city, and materially to obstruct the 
free and proper use of both the sidewalks and the 
streets ; and, 

Whereas it is, by the laws of this state, unlawful for 
any person or persons, by agent or otherwise, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 441 

1. To sell, in any quantity, intoxicating liquors (ex- 
cept wine manufactured of the pure juice of the grape, 
cultivated in this state, beer, ale, or cider), to be drank 
in or upon the premises where sold, or in or upon any 
adjoining premises connected therewith ; 

2. To sell any intoxicating liquors whatever, without 
exception, to- minors, unless upon the written order of 
their parents, guardians, or family physician ; 

3. To sell intoxicating liquors, of any kind whatever, 
to persons intoxicated, or in the habit of getting intoxi- 
cated; and, 

Whereas, all places where liquors are sold in violation 
of these laws are declared public nuisances, and, upon 
conviction of the keeper thereof, are required to be shut 
up and abated as such ; therefore 

Be it known, that orders have been issued to the po- 
lice force of this city to prevent the use and occupation 
of the streets and sidewalks as aforesaid, and to give 
special and careful attention to the enforcement of the 
said laws, and make prompt arrest of any and all per- 
sons violating the same. 

By order of the Police Board. 

Wm. H. Sigman, 
Mayor and ex officio President Police Board. 

A council of war was held, and it was decided best to 
desist, in deference to the law, but to call upon the au- 
thorities to execute the law so appropriately quoted in 
the latter part of the proclamation. And so, after 
twenty-five days of unwearied labor in the interest of 
temperance and humanity, the " crusade " was brought 
to a sudden end A Operations, however, were by no 
means suspended. The method was merely changed, 
and at the present writing the campaign is being vigor- 
ously pushed in every direction but that of street " cru- 
sading." 

In Columbus, the movement passed through a great 
many critical preliminary stages before it came to street 
27 



442 INTEMPERANCE, 

praying. Mention has already been made of the serious 
obstacles encountered in this city, as the political centre 
of the state, and of the interest felt in the cause at the 
capital city, throughout the state. From- the first, every- 
thing seemed to go wrong. About the middle of Febru- 
ary, an immense mass meeting was held under the direc- 
tion of Dio Lewis ; but for some reason the clergymen 
of the city developed a decided antagonism to* the great 
temperance apostle, and would not work harmoniously 
with him. Prohibitionists kicked out of the traces because 
law was not the objective point. The newspapers took 
grounds against the movement. Prominent citizens with- 
held their means and influence, and when a man did come 
to the front, the cry was raised, " It is a woman's move- 
ment. Let it alone, or you will spoil it.'' Bad advice 
was heaped upon the movers in the work, and bad blood 
was developed at almost every step. 

All this hindered, but did not discourage, the faithful 
and persistent women. They held their women's meet- 
ing, turned out to the mass meetings, and filled the 
churches when temperance sermons were preached. 
When the prohibitionists and preachers got into a wran- 
gle, they calmed the troubled waters by a prayer, and 
one of the soothing old hymns. The women's daily 
prayer meetings were kept up with increasing interest, 
and at last, in the face of all discouragements, they de- 
cided that the time had come to go forth and grapple 
with the monster in his very haunts. Without any pre- 
vious announcement, one hundred and fifty women is- 
sued forth from the First Presbyterian church, on the 
afternoon of the 3d of March ; and while the deep- 
toned bell tolled, took their way, in a long and solemn 
procession, up High Street. In five minutes it seemed 
as if half the people in town were on their track to wit- 
ness the strange sight. The great retail liquor estab- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 445 

lishment of Glock & Stevenson was passed by, and the 
column came to a halt before the American House, one 
of the leading hotels in the city. Four ladies — Mrs. 
S. V. Dessellem, Mrs. H. C. Lewis, Mrs. N. J. Miner, 
and Mrs. W. W. Bliss ascended the broad steps, and were 
received in the parlor by the proprietor and his clerks. 
The bar-keeper was summoned, but no promise to quit 
could be extracted from him. Two large saloons in the 
immediate vicinity were entered, and impressive ser- 
vices held. Then the procession filed into the Neil 
House, and marched back to the office. Neither the pro- 
prietor nor bar-keeper was in, and the column moved 
on, followed by a crowd of two thousand or more. Other 
places on High and Broad Streets were visited, and the 
ladies returned to the church to pray and talk the mat- 
ter over. 

The second day of the campaign commenced amid 
great excitement. The women were upon the streets in 
increased numbers and with reinvigorated courage. In 
the afternoon, three hundred of them filed out of the 
First Presbyterian church, and amid the ringing of bells, 
moved upon the saloons. The throng of excited spec- 
tators increased at every moment, until it was difficult 
for the police to clear the way before the advancing 
column. Saloon after saloon was visited. Wherever they 
were admitted, the}^ prayed and pleaded with the saloon 
keeper, and when they were shut out, a prayer and 
song were offered on the steps. The vast crowd surged 
and crowded about the praying women, and occasionally 
became noisy and threatening. At length the second 
day's work was done, and the ladies returned to the 
church, where continued prayer had been offered up 
while they were upon the street. 

Next day the immense crowds induced a change of 
programme. The force was divided into four good-sized 



448 INTEMPERANCE, 

bands, each going in an opposite direction. During the 
afternoon, one of the squads encountered a crowd of 
Germans at a beer saloon on West State Street, who 
had evidently prepared for their coming. The bar- 
keeper met the ladies at the door, and refused to sign 
the pledge. The ladies then began to siug, and imme- 
diately a shrill cornet within struck up " Shoo Fly," 
which was continued, with ingenious variations, all 
through the prayer. The building was filled with men 
and women, who yelled and cheered, and even spit upon 
the kneeling women. The chief of police, who was 
present, made a speech to the crowd, commanding order. 
The ladies then moved on to the next saloon, while the 
able-bodied cornet man sarcastically played, " Home, 
Sweet Home." As soon as they were gone, the crowd 
of loafers came together and held a mock prayer meeting, 
at the conclusion of which all were invited in to drink. 

While the ladies were kneeling in prayer at the next 
place, a beer wagon drove up, and the stalwart German 
driver shouldered a keg and marched through the circle 
into the saloon, at which bold achievement the men, 
women, and children set up an unearthly shouting and 
screaming. Among the results of the first few days 
work were one or two saloons closed, and all kinds of 
liquor banished from the restaurant at the Union Depot. 
Many signatures were also, added to the citizens' pledge, 
and among them that of James G. Bull, democratic 
mayor of the city. Many of the men who signed the 
pledge were notoriously hard drinkers. 

This method of operations was continued, day after 
day, with no marked success. Tremendous mass meet- 
ings were held in the great City Hall, and abundant 
sympathy with the cause was exhibited. But, somehow, 
it did not prosper. No man of recognized ability and 
force came forward to champion the movement and se- 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 447 

cure for it aid and support among the men. There was 
also no one among the ladies well adapted to the leader- 
ship of the forces. Their numbers dwindled from day 
to day ; the excitement subsided ; side issues were raised ; 
and within a month the crusade in Columbus was prac- 
tically at an end. Not many saloonists had quit, but 
over four thousand persons had signed the total absti- 
nence pledge. 

On the 20th of March, one hundred and twenty-five 
ladies formed in procession and marched to the rotunda 
of the State House, where they took possession, and sang 
and prayed for an hour. The members of the General 
Assembly left the halls of legislation, and formed a circle 
about the prayer meeting. Hats were removed, and re- 
spectful attention paid, but the effect of all this labor 
upon subsequent legislation was not apparent. 

Early in April a bill was introduced into the General 
Assembly to so amend the municipal code as to take 
away from town or city corporations the right to prohibit 
the sale of ale or beer, and the keeping open of tippling 
houses within their limits. This was known as the 
Pearson bill, the aim of which was to knock the bottom 
out of the hundreds of ordinances similar to that of Mc- 
Connelsville, which were going into effect all over the 
state, and working such fearful havoc among the saloons. 

As soon as this bill was before the House, both parties 
rallied their forces for the struggle. Delegations of beer 
venders poured into the capital to see the bill through, 
and counter delegations of crusaders were sent to pre- 
serve the laws intact. Here, again, the Columbus ladies 
paid their respects to the legislature. When it was 
known that the bill had come up for discussion, the 
alarm was given. Bells were rung, and in an hour the 
hall was filled with female advocates of temperance, 
who watched the words and vote of every member with 



448 INTEMPERANCE, 

exasperating closeness. The bill never passed, and for 
this the friends of temperance everywhere are indebted 
to the prompt action of the women of Ohio, and espe- 
cially of Columbus. On Saturday, the 18th of April, it 
being the last session of the House, three hundred women 
staid with the members until midnight, and had the sat- 
isfaction of knowing that they had put a quietus on the 
schemes of the liquor sellers for a year, at least. 

Cleveland was seized suddenly by the epidemic, and 
experienced a violent attack. The city is nearly three 
times as large as Columbus, and is the seat of a large 
liquor trade. The inauguration of the " temperance 
crusade," therefore, stirred the whiskey elements to the 
lowest dregs. The devotees of Gambrinus learned when 
the ladies were going to make their first advance, and 
were on hand in an immense mob to receive them. 
March 19, four bands started out, one on the east and 
three on the west side. One of the latter bands, while 
going up Pearl Street, was followed by a fierce and ex- 
cited crowd, who assailed them with yells and insulting 
remarks whenever they attempted to sing or pray. The 
rabble finally became entirely unmanageable. The ladies 
were threatened with violence, and one or two of them 
were quite seriously injured. A number of men who 
interfered to protect the ladies were severely beaten, 
and a policeman, in attempting to keep the mob back, 
was struck on the head with a brick and nearly killed. 
The ladies, at last, escaped from the howling populace 
and returned home in safety. 

These barbarous demonstrations of course excited 
indignation in the minds of all good citizens, and many, 
who had been opposing the movement of the women, 
were now driven to take sides with them. Neutrality 
was changed to sympathy, and sympathy grew into sup- 
port ; so that the liquor sellers, next day, found their 



ITS ASPECT AiO) ITS REMEDY. 449 

opponents strengthened, rather than weakened, by the 
violent treatment they had received. The crusade was 
renewed with increased numbers. An angry and threat- 
ening crowd followed them, and when a policeman at- 
tempted to arrest one of a crowd of roughs, a fight 
ensued, in which the police were obliged to use their 
clubs vigorously. For a while a riot seemed imminent ; 
but re-enforcements from the police headquarters pre- 
vented an outbreak. During the excitement the German 
brewers organized a procession of lager beer wagons, in 
which sat men on beer kegs, drinking as they moved 
along. 

That same night both parties to this irrepressible con- 
flict were warned by a proclamation from Mayor Otis 
to " abstain from all such assemblages on the streets of 
the city as would tend to disturb the peace of the com- 
munity, as such assemblies were in direct violation of an 
ordinance of the city." It was announced that if any 
attempted to molest citizens in the orderly exercise of 
lawful rights, whether in the streets or elsewhere, it 
would be at their own peril. This ambiguous document, 
like Belshazzar's warning, or a Delphic oracle, had to be 
interpreted before it could be determined to whom it 
applied. The judge of one of the courts came to the 
rescue, and decided that the mayor could legally pro- 
hibit the assembling of the ladies to pray on the street 
before a saloon ; but if they were admitted inside, the 
laws of the city could no longer reach them, and they 
could carry on their devotions untrammelled by law. 

With this lucid exposition of legal restrictions as a 
guide, the ladies went on with the visitation of saloons. 
The mayor's proclamation was strictly observed. Wher- 
ever they could persuade a dram seller or liquor mer- 
chant to let them in, they prayed and sang, and pleaded 
with him to give up the business ; but where they were 



450 INTEMPEKANCE, 

denied admittance, they passed quietly on. The procla- 
mation and the emphatic expression of public sentiment 
in favor of protecting the ladies, had the effect to allay 
the excitement, and prevent any further demonstrations 
of violence. Some of the wholesale liquor establish- 
ments on Water Street allowed the crusaders to come in, 
and for a while the voices of prayer rose on the air with 
the fumes of rye and Bourbon. 

For several weeks this plan of operations was kept 
up ; but owing to the restricted field of labor, the ladies 
found that little could be accomplished beyond obtaining 
names to the citizens' pledge, and exerting an influence 
privately. Popular interest subsided as the novelty wore 
off, and at last the beer jerkers were allowed to carry on 
their avocation unmolested by praying women. 

Cincinnati was a point which the crusaders hesitated 
to attack. It loomed up before them as an impenetrable 
barrier to their complete success. The general belief 
was, that the women would not be rash enough to at- 
tempt any movement with the country plan of praying 
in saloons. If they should, people predicted the gravest 
consequences to the peace and good order of the city. 
Even the most sanguine friends of temperance trembled 
for the result of the battle, when they made a survey of 
the field. To begin with, there were between three 
thousand and three thousand five hundred regular places 
where liquor was sold. There were scores of heavy 
wholesale houses, the aggregate annual trade of which 
amounted to thirty-three million dollars, or more than 
double the value of the immense pork trade of the city. 
Millions of capital were invested in this vast business. 
The money made by the breweries and distilleries built 
scores of massive business blocks and elegant private 
residences. Banks and business men were largely de- 
pendent on whiskey money for the conduct of their 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 451 

trade. Many of the wealthiest men in the city were 
whiskey dealers, and their rank in society was high. 

Then, too, the habits and sentiments of the people 
were not a pleasant subject of contemplation for a tem- 
perance reformer. One third of the population were 
Germans, educated to the use of beer and wine from 
their youth up. Every movement in the interest of 
temperance was regarded by them as an interference 
with their personal rights, and an abbreviation of the 
liberties which they were led to expect in coming 
to this land. Those who entertained opposite views 
were looked upon as Puritans, fanatics, and bigots. To 
change all this condition of affairs would seem like over- 
turning the very foundation of things. Social drink- 
ing among Americans, also, was quite prevalent. The 
wealthy and aristocratic families in the city and suburbs 
had their cellars stocked with choice wines and liquors, 
which figured conspicuously in the hospitalities of the 
house. Prominent business men, lawyers, physicians, 
and politicians took their occasional or regular dram, as 
they had done for years. Young men, with plenty of 
money, consumed vast quantities of choice drinks at the 
high-toned places ; while in the common beer saloons 
gathered thousands of laboring men and mechanics, to 
spend, for beer and whiskey, a good share of their weekly 
earnings. Well authenticated cases are cited of indus- 
trious Germans who spent regularly a full half of their 
pay for their daily supply of barley juice. 

So much for one side of the picture. What was there 
on the other ? A few hundred men and women, who 
realized the terrible evils of intemperance ; about twelve 
thousand church members, who could generally be 
counted on the side of temperance, though some of 
them rented property to liquor sellers ; a carefully elab- 
orated state law, which was as dead as though it had 



452 INTEMPERANCE, 

been enacted in China ; and perhaps what was more than 
all, the inspiriting example of the scores of small towns 
throughout the state, reports from which crowded the 
daily press. To inaugurate the woman's temperance cru- 
sade on such a basis, to all human calculation, seemed 
the height of presumption. But it was done, and at the 
present writing (late in April) the movement is still in 
progress. 

The honor of taking the initiatory step belongs to the 
ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church, which has 
led the van in so many great moral reforms. At their 
Monday morning meeting, about the first of March, these 
clerical gentlemen unanimously decided that the spiritual 
and temporary interests of society demanded a great tem- 
perance reformation, and indorsed the woman's movement 
as the best means of effecting this great work. A call 
was made for a meeting of the ministers of all denomina- 
tions, which took place on the following morning. A 
large number of clerical gentlemen of all stripes of belief 
were present. Views were interchanged, and plans pro- 
posed, and the result of the meeting was to unanimously 
determine upon a mass meeting of friends of the woman's 
temperance movement, to be held at Wesley chapel, on 
Thursday evening following. A committee of two from 
each denomination represented was appointed to make 
arrangements for the meeting, and prepare rules for its 
government. The mass meeting was largely attended. 
Many came out of pure love for the cause, and many 
others from motives of curiositj^, expecting that a cru- 
sade was to be organized at once. Speeches were made 
by a number of women, ministers, and citizens generally , 
all of whom with one voice called upon the women of 
Cincinnati to organize and push forward the work begun 
by their sisters throughout the state. It was decided to 
appoint a woman's meeting next day at three o'clock, at 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 453 

the First Presbyterian church, and the assemblage broke 
up in a glow of enthusiasm. 

The woman's meeting was attended by about three 
hundred. They were not from the wealthy and aris- 
tocratic classes of society; nor did they represent the 
opposite extreme. They were well-to-do, intelligent, 
thoughtful ladies, many of whom had been prominent 
in charitable and Christian enterprises. There were also 
a few among them whose plain garb and pale, sad faces 
told the story of personal sufferings from the evil they 
longed to suppress. The burden of their prayers was, 
that they might be guided with wisdom, that every 
word might be spoken in love and gentleness, and that 
only the spirit of kindness might prevail in their efforts 
with the liquor sellers. A deep feeling of earnestness 
and piety prevailed. •The only business done was to 
appoint a committee of six ladies to have charge of the 
organization of a league. The names of all those who 
would volunteer for personal service were enrolled, and 
made a lengthy list. 

Then followed a series of temperance mass meetings, 
held in the evenings at the principal churches. Popular 
interest in the cause was exhibited by the hundreds and 
thousands of persons who flocked in to these meetings, 
and listened eagerly to every word that was said for 
temperance. At the second regular mass meeting, the 
wholesale druggists of the city, through Mr. Burdsal, 
reported that they had voluntarily agreed to sell no spir- 
ituous liquors except to physicians and druggists, and 
not to them when there was any reason to believe it 
would be used as a beverage. One of the hotels — the 
Henrie House — also reported that its bar should be ever 
thereafter discontinued ; and that, to this day, bears the 
honorable distinction of being the only " temperance 
hotel" in the great city of Cincinnati. 



454 INTEMPERANCE, 

This era of mass meetings continued, unmarked by 
any special incident, until the 10th of March, when D. 
M. Bleaks, keeper of an extensive saloon on Fourth 
Street, near Plum, and formerly chief of police, sur- 
rendered, on solicitation of a couple of ladies who went 
quietly to him with the request to close. This gave 
much encouragement to the women about entering upon 
the great work. It was, after mature deliberation, de- 
cided best not to begin at once with the visitation of 
saloons by large bands, but to go in separate committees 
of two or three, and talk privately with the liquor sellers. 
To facilitate the work, the city was divided into twenty 
districts, each embracing about six squares. Two ladies 
were appointed to have charge of each district, the un- 
derstanding being that they should first canvass their 
territory thoroughly, and plead with the liquor sellers 
to yield. 

This visitation by committees was properly the first 
stage of the street work in Cincinnati. The first day they 
started out in this manner, there was a tremendous sen- 
sation. As the two or three elderly ladies passed quietly 
along the street, arm in arm, the cry of, " Temperance 
women," was raised, and soon they found themselves in 
the midst of a dense crowd of women, children, and 
rowdies, who howled and surged about them as though 
they were an invading army, or some wonderful show 
on wheels, instead of a couple of weak and inoffensive 
women. Some of the committees experienced more dif- 
ficulty than others; but all were treated in the most 
barbarous and insulting manner, and received scarcely 
a word of encouragement from any one. It was a weary 
and thankless task, and, when day after day of this try- 
ing labor brought no results, it was determined to adopt 
some more effective plan. 

By this time organization had been more thoroughly 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 455 

completed. Advisory and executive committees were 
appointed, to have entire control of the plans and move- 
ments of the league. The following officers wers elected 
for permanent service : President, Mrs. Chas. Ferguson ; 
First Vice-President, Mrs. W. H. Malone ; Second Vice- 
President, Mrs. W. H. Allen ; First Secretary, Mrs. E. 
L. Johnston; Second Secretary, Mrs. E. G. Dalton; 
Treasurer, Mrs. Dr. E. Williams. 

One incident that occurred early in the campaign gave 
a new impulse to the movement. The brewers of Cin- 
cinnati loaded up wagons with beer, organized a force 
of five or six hundred able-bodied Germans, and marched 
to the relief of the saloon keepers in the adjoining town 
of Madisonville, who were besieged with the temperance 
band. When the ladies assembled in the church, the 
Cincinnati crowd, by concerted action, formed before 
the door, and with music and beer thought to break up 
the proceedings. Not succeeding, they began to pour 
into the church, to overawe the few feeble women in- 
side. But fortunately several German ministers from 
Cincinnati were present, and preached the gospel of 
Christianity and temperance to the intruders in a man- 
ner wholly unlooked for. The scene was dramatic and 
impressive ; and so well did the women and ministers 
improve their opportunity, that some of those who came 
to scoff were actually moved to tears. Mrs. Wells, a re- 
markable little woman, who afterwards attained quite a 
reputation for her pure and simple eloquence, did most 
effective service at this crisis. The effort to overawe 
the Madisonville ladies was a failure, but it aroused the 
Cincinnati ladies to the necessity of giving their liquor 
sellers and drinkers enough to occupy their attention at 
home. 

The second stage of the work in Cincinnati was the 
crusade, after the approved country style. The plan of 



456 INTEMPERANCE, 

visitation by committees was given a fair trial, and found 
to be wholly ineffective. It was necessary either to 
abandon the movement altogether, or else rally more 
strength, and visit the saloons in bands of sufficient size 
to command some respect. The latter plan was immedi- 
ately adopted. Subordinate leagues began to be organ- 
ized in different parts of the city, and the change of 
tactics gave new life to the mass meetings which were 
still regularly continued. The street crusade was fairly 
inaugurated on the morning of March 26, when thirty- 
five women arose from their knees in the Ninth Street 
Baptist church, and volunteered to go with Mrs. Fergu- 
son to one of the fashionable Fourth Street saloons. It 
was known as the " Custom House," and was situated 
next door to the Merchants' Exchange. The time chosen 
for the visit was about half past eleven o'clock — just the 
hour when the business men on 'Change were wont to 
step in next door to " take something." The band of 
women descended upon the place so suddenly that some 
of the honorable merchants who were inside had no 
chance to escape, and were compelled to sit for half an 
hour and listen to the praying and singing. They would 
have given several barrels of pork apiece to have been 
able to crawl through a knot-hole ; but they were fairly 
caught, and put on a bold front. 

The news of this sudden raid spread through that part 
of the city, and in a few minutes the whole square from 
Main to Walnut Street was packed full with people, 
stretching their necks in a crazy endeavor to catch a 
glimpse of the women behind the green shade. The 
services over, they were invited to come again next day ; 
Avhich invitation they promptly accepted. They then 
pressed their way out through the crowd, and returned 
to the church, where prayer had been offered up con- 
stantly while they were out. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 457 

Four other bands, numbering from thirty to sixty 
each, went out the same day, exciting the greatest com- 
motion in their respective districts. The one which 
attempted some missionary work in the German beer 
saloons on Freeman Street met with the most shameful 
treatment. The crowd rushed in pell-mell after them, 
mounting chairs, tables, and each other's backs, and keep- 
ing up a continuous shouting, yelling, and laughing. 
When the ladies in one part of the room began the sweet 
strain, " Rock of Ages," the Germans struck up " Die 
Wacht am Rhein," and the two choruses mingled to- 
gether strangely on the air. 

The scene next day near the Merchants' Exchange 
was more exciting than the first. A crowd of two or 
three thousand persons surged and swayed about the 
little nucleus of praying women, who were refused ad- 
mittance to the saloon, and held services on the walk 
in front. Amid the yells of the mob, and the cries of 
" Keep back " from the policemen, rose the fervent, 
eloquent prayers of Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Leavitt, Mrs. 
Glenn, and Mrs. Stewart, and the strains of the well- 
known hymns could be heard above all the noise and 
commotion. The proprietor of the saloon mounted a 
curb-stone, and addressed the thirsty crowd with, " This 
way, gentlemen ; walk in and get your drinks ; there 
goes another fifteen cents." The excitement increased, 
and the pushing and jostling of the crowd made many 
tremble for the safety of the dauntless band. 

A lieutenant of the police appeared on the scene, and 
said, "For God's sake, ladies, stop this ! you will create 
a riot ! " A scissors-grinder, who had been hired to go 
through the crowd ringing his bell, was stopped, when 
he came near the ladies, by some man. A fight ensued, 
and the scissors-grinder was arrested. Another man, 
who tried to create a disturbance, was arrested, but, 



458 INTEMPEKANCE, 

at the urgent solicitation of the ladies, was released by 
the authorities. 

In Fulton — a remote corner of the city, lying far up 
the river — the crusade was begun early, and prosecuted 
with vigor, squads of ladies going out daily in street cars 
from the city to re-enforce the little band. Their labors 
were rewarded, after a few days, with the first, and 
almost the only, " pouring out " during the whole course 
of the movement in Cincinnati. Richard Manley, who 
kept a beer saloon and billiard-room on Front Street, 
broke in upon the hymn they were singing one morning, 
with, " Hold on a minute — I'll give up." He then told 
the ladies that his whole stock was at their disposal, and 
that he himself would help to throw the vile stuff into 
the street. With beaming faces the ladies rolled out the 
beer barrels, knocked out the fawcets, and sent the con- 
tents reeking through the gutters. The bottles upon 
the shelves were brought out, and dashed upon the pave- 
ment, before the eyes of the gaping crowd that stood 
about. After the saloon had been emptied of everything 
that could moisten the throat, or make glad the heart of 
man, the proprietor thought of some fine old Catawba, 
stored away in the cellar. This was soon hunted up, and 
shared the fate of the rest, the conscience-stricken .sa- 
loonist saying, if he owned all the liquor between there 
and Columbia, the women might have the whole of it. 

This campaign of active street work was just begin- 
ning to bear promising fruits, when it received a sudden 
and unlooked-for check at the hands of the mayor. The 
bands of women were increasing in numbers, and the 
rabble was gradually diminishing in numbers and grow- 
ing less dangerous, when Mayor Johnston, at the instance 
of the Board of Aldermen, sent in to one of the morning 
meetings, about the last of March, a quasi-proclamation. 
He " respectfully urged that the women would desist 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. ■ 459 

from any further interference with the rights and privi- 
leges of the business community, and adopt some other 
mode of" accomplishing their desires, which was not so 
objectionable." His imperative duty demanded of him 
the enforcement of the ordinances with which the ladies 
had come into collision. The document created quite a 
commotion, and was at once referred to the Advisory 
Committee, with instructions to consult with lawyers 
upon the questions involved, and report at the next 
meeting. The decision of the committee was, to abide 
scrupulously by the ordinances of the city, and cease 
praying upon the streets ; but to call upon the mayor, 
in turn, to enforce all the ordinances. They argued that 
a technical trespass of theirs should not be dealt with 
more severely than the open and constant violations of 
the law on the part of the saloon keepers. 

Then began the third stage in the movement. In 
response to inquiry as to what they might do, the mayor 
had told the women they might meet in the public 
squares of the city, and pray all they liked, or even in the 
saloons, if the proprietors were willing to admit them. 
Here the ladies saw an opportunity for usefulness, and 
were prompt to avail themselves of it. The bands con- 
tinued, as before, to meet in the Ninth Street Baptist 
church in the morning, and in the afternoon to send 
forth from the headquarters of the various leagues as 
many volunteers as were available. These bands went 
to the market spaces and public squares in their district, 
and there preached the gospel of temperance and Chris- 
tianity to the crowds that gathered. Saloons were called 
at on the way to and from these services ; but the liquor 
sellers, as if by concerted action, uniformly refused them 
admittance, and they passed on, without infringing on 
the majesty of the law. 

The labors of the day ended, the bands took their way 



460 • INTEMPERANCE, 

back to the church from which they started out, great 
crowds of the unwashed following at their heels. The 
doors of the church were thrown open, and the street 
rabble rushed in, filling all available space. This was 
probably the most successful feature of this stage of the 
work in Cincinnati. In these meetings, men, women, 
and children heard the gospel of peace who had never 
been inside of a church before. One young man, who 
was thus led in, acknowledged to the ladies that it was 
the first time he had ever heard the story of Christ. 
Pledges were always ready at the desk, and hundreds — 
almost thousands — of men and boys, in the course of 
these meetings, voluntarily walked forward and took 
upon themselves the pledge of total abstinence. Some 
failed to keep it, and yielded to subsequent temptations ; 
but many did not, and now bless the " praying women" 
for their deliverance from the terrible curse of intem- 
perance. Among the leagues which did the most effective 
service in this direction, was that having its headquarters 
at Finley chapel, and led by Mrs. S. K. Leavitt, Mrs. 
Alfred Hill, and others ; that of the Ninth Street Bap- 
tist church, in which Mrs. Whitredge, Mrs. Ferguson, 
and Mrs. Dr. Dalton were prominent ; that of St. Paul's 
Methodist Episcopal church, led by Mrs. Glenn and Mrs. 
Bishop Clark ; that of York Street, headed b}^ Mrs. 
Hudelson, Mrs. Bobbins, Mrs. Moore, and others ; and 
that of Wesley chapel, in which Mrs. W. I. Fee and Mrs. 
George B. Beecher took an active part. These bands 
varied in size from day to day, but were generally all on 
the streets at the same time, and numbered in the aggre- 
gate from one hundred and twenty to two hundred and 
fifty. 

At the present writing this method of operations is 
still observed. The authorities having shown no dis- 
position to enforce the ordinances of the city against 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS EEMEDY. 461 

saloon keepers, the ladies do not adhere strictly to the 
mayor's orders, but sing and pray wherever the spirit 
moves them. Generally, however, devotional exercises 
are confined to the market-places, and the infringements 
upon the sacred rights of saloon keepers are of short 
duration, and somewhat rare occurrence. What the 
next stage of the movement will be, it is impossible to 
predict. It still has a strong and vigorous life, which is 
a sufficient guarantee that, in some form or other, its in- 
fluence will be felt for years. But the test has been 
applied, and it cannot be denied that for the redemption 
of large cities from whiskey, the woman's movement is 
a failure. 



462 INTEMPERANCE, 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE MOVEMENT IN THE EAST. — ON THE PACIFIC COAST. — IN THE 
SOUTH AND WEST.. — WORCESTER THE TRIAL POINT IN NEW ENG- 
LAND. — THE WESTERN PLAN DISCARDED. — THE INTEREST IN NEW 
YORK CITY. — INFLUENCE OF THE CRUSADE FELT IN CONGRESS. — 
DESCENT UPON THE MARYLAND LEGISLATURE. — GREAT RESULTS IN 
PHILADELPHIA. — DISGRACEFUL SCENE IN CHICAGO. —IN GENERAL. 

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, within three 
months from the time the first prayer was made in the 
streets of Hillsboro', the Woman's Temperance Move- 
ment had spread over the entire country. The temper- 
ance columns of the daily papers, in a single day, con- 
tained despatches from Kansas and California on the 
west, from New York and Massachusetts on the east, 
and from Michigan and Wisconsin on the north, while 
even the Southern States gave evidence of an awakened 
interest in the subject. But the farther the movement 
got from its source, the less it seemed to have of its ori- 
ginal force and vitality. As the originator of the plan 
was wont to observe, the Ohio Valley was about the only 
soil in which the thing would grow. In other states it 
took on new and strange forms, and generally, after 
passing rapidly from one experiment to another, died 
out after a few weeks' agitation. 

Considerable interest was excited in the success of the 
movement in the East, where temperance legislation for 
the past twenty years has been so prominent a subject 
in politics and morals. In the course of his second tour 
through Ohio, Dio Lewis announced that he was about 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 463 

to return to inaugurate the work in Massachusetts, and 
declared his belief that Worcester could throw off the 
horrid incubus in three weeks, and Boston in . as many , 
months. For various reasons, Worcester was selected 
as the first point of attack.- A mass meeting was held 
on the evening of March 2, under the direction of Dio 
Lewis. There can be no doubt that the meeting was a 
success. Many went there with positive prejudices 
against the praying plan, and many others without the 
least confidence in its success ; but Dr. Lewis worked 
with such peculiar tact, and told the story of the crusade 
in Ohio with such good effect, that the whole audience 
soon reached a state of enthusiasm that was a surprise to 
themselves. It was soon apparent that there were sev- 
eral hundred women in the audience ready for vigorous 
work,. The signs were so encouraging that the over- 
sanguine orator predicted that within two weeks the 
thirstiest man in Worcester must drink water, or go 
dry. But then came a two days' season of debate and 
deliberation, during which the warmth of their enthusi- 
asm cooled off very perceptibly. After talking the mat- 
ter over long and earnestly, it was decided to be imprac- 
ticable for the conservative East to adopt the peculiar 
method of the unconventional West, and a compromise 
was agreed upon. Instead of praying in saloons until 
the keepers would close up, the women determined to 
go in smaller bands, and work by private and personal 
appeal, not only with the liquor seller, but with the 
owner of the property which was rented for the sale of 
liquor. Hotel keepers and druggists were to be pro- 
ceeded with in a similar way. 

This mode of operations, it will be perceived, was in 
marked contrast with the Ohio way of doing things, and 
yet it was an indication of a deep and genuine temper- 
ance revival. Eastern people generally approved the 



464 INTEMPERANCE, 

plan as much, better than that of marching through the 
streets in large bands ; and it was generally believed in 
the West that the Ohio plant would not bear transplant- 
'ment into a climate so uncongenial. This, then, practi- 
cally settled the question, not only for Worcester and 
Central Massachusetts, but also for all New England. 
No doubt some good has been accomplished by the 
method of operations chosen ; but there have been no 
reports of surrenders of saloon keepers, or of any pour- 
ing out of liquors. Boston was left to enjoy her thirty- 
five hundred dram shops in security, and the prediction 
of Dio Lewis went unfulfilled. The refined tastes of 
New England could not tolerate such Western vulgar- 
isms. 

Boston, however, deserves the credit of some good 
resolutions. The next day after the Worcester meeting, 
the Total Abstinence Society of Boston passed the fol- 
lowing : — 

" Resolved, That inasmuch as the women and children 
are the chief sufferers of the untold evils of intemper- 
ance, it is eminently appropriate that the female sex 
should take the most active part in the efforts of the 
day for the suppression of this universally acknowledged 
immorality ; and we look with deep interest on the wo- 
men's movement in regard to temperance reform, and 
cherish the hope that a divine Providence will direct 
and rule over it for good. 

"Resolved, That, in the opinion of this board, no 
great success in the temperance reform can be expected 
till the Christian church and ministry, take a decided 
stand on the side of total abstinence." 

Dio Lewis first appeared in New York city on the last 
day of February. Very little temperance excitement 
had preceded him, and the mass meeting at Association 
Hall was not an astounding success. An admission fee 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 465 

was charged, although Dio Lewis gave his services free. 
Nothing was done at that meeting, or indeed at any sub- 
sequent time, towards an organized crusade, on Western 
principles. The general influence of the revival in other 
parts of the country, however, took a strong hold on the 
popular mind. Vicar-General Turner, at St. James 
Cathedral, in Brooklyn, a week later, referred to the 
temperance movement, and urged his congregation to 
give it all the aid in their power. This is one of the 
few instances in which the crusade was sanctioned by 
high authority in the Catholic church. The agitation 
of the question in the city was continued for a month 
or more, in a variety of ways. Once or twice, a small 
number of ladies in Brooklyn quietly began a saloon vis- 
itation, but this phase of the work never grew into any 
prominence. Meetings of clergymen and friends of the 
cause were held from time to time, and the customary 
resolutions passed, reciting the evils of intemperance, 
and the necessity for some action for their suppression. 

At a meeting held in the Hanson Street Methodist 
church, on the evening of March 12, Dio Lewis took 
charge for five minutes, in true Western style. He 
called for all the men who believed in Christian women 
and their work to get up. Hundreds jumped to their 
feet, while applause shook the house. He next called 
for the women who thought intemperance a curse, and 
who were willing to help rid the country of it, to rise. 
A multitude of women were on their feet instantly. 
He then called for all the men and women who were 
ready to unite in the work to get up, whereupon nearly 
the whole audience arose, amid great enthusiasm. Dr. 
Lewis pronounced it " magnificent." The Rev. Dr. 
Steel, jumping up, said, " It is magnetic ; " while the 
Rev. Dr. Fulton, walking up and down the platform, 
cried, " Glorious ! glorious ! " But, as far as heard 
from, nothing ever came of it. 



466 INTEMPERANCE, 

Strange as it may sound, the influence of this temper- 
ance movement was felt even in the halls of Congress. 
On the 2d of March, Judge Lawrence, of Ohio, in- 
troduced into the house a bill which provides that in 
the territories of the United States, and in the District 
of Columbia, every husband, wife, child, parent, guar- 
dian, or other person who shall be injured in person, 
property, or meatus of support, by any intoxicating liquor, 
in person, or in consequence of the intoxication, habitual 
or otherwise, of any person, shall have the right of ac- 
tion, in his or her own name, against any person or per- 
sons who shall, by selling or giving intoxicating liquor, 
have caused intoxication, in whole or in part, of such 
person or persons, for all damages sustained and exem- 
plary damages ; and the owner or lessee, or person or 
persons, renting or leasing any building, or persons hav- 
ing knowledge that intoxicating liquors are to be, or are 
being, sold thereon, or who sliall knowingly permit in- 
toxicating liquors to be sold in such building or prem- 
ises, shall be liable for all such damages, severally or 
jointly, &c. ; all of which is substantially the Ohio Adair 
law transplanted into national legislation. 

The following, partaking somewhat of the nature of a 
joke, was presented to the Senate, March 18, by Senator 
Carpenter himself. The letter was referred to the Com- 
mittee on Finance, and ordered u to be printed." 

New York City, March 18, 1874. 

To Senator Carpenter, President of the Senate : 

As the tidal wave of the temperance crusade will soon 
reach Washington, on behalf of the army of women who 
are alive to the movement, we ask you to join our ranks. 
Your high position, your well-known eloquence, and 
your championship of women, mark you as a man to 
step to the front. We want you and Senators Chandler 
and Sprague to inform the committee to receive our 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 467 

praying band at the bar of the Senate. Congress is be- 
ginning to recognize this leading reform. The bill just 
passed to investigate drunkenness proves this. Will 
you read this appeal to the Senate, asking permission to 
receive our band under the escort of your chaplain ? 
Yours, in behalf of the crusaders, 

Mrs. P. R. La whence. 

About a week later a mass meeting was held, under 
the auspices of Dio Lewis, at which General Leggett, 
Commissioner of Patents, was one of the principal 
speakers. Meetings of clergymen were also held on 
various occasions, but nothing resembling the woman's 
praying movement was attempted in the city of Wash- 
ington. 

Annapolis, the quiet seat of the Maryland legislature, 
received a visitation of women about the middle of 
March, much in the Western style. A bill was before 
the legislature to allow townships and wards to deter- 
mine for themselves whether they should allow liquor to 
be sold within their limits — in other words, a local 
option law. Baltimore became interested in the ques- 
tion. An immense meeting was held in. favor of the 
proposed measure, and, shortly after, a delegation of 
one hundred ladies started by steamer for the capital 
city, to present a memorial to the legislature in favor 
of local option. When the steamer arrived, the House 
was in session, and the ladies were furnished with seats 
in the lobbies. Shortly after, the House, in order to 
rid itself of the crusaders, adjourned, and most of the 
members left the hall. The ladies then took possession, 
sang a hymn and the doxology, and adjourned thern-^ 
selves. The memorial was then presented to the Senate, 
where it was received and read. Shortly after the ad- 
journment of the House, a brass band appeared to sere- 
nade the ladies ; but their attentions were cut short by 



468 INTEMPERANCE, 

order of the President of the Senate*. A temperance 
mass meeting was then held in the hall of the Capitol ; 
and soon after, the ladies returned to Baltimore by the 
steamer. 

The Pacific coast was not exempt from visitation by 
the temperance revival. A regular, organized crusade 
was entered upon by the women of San Francisco early 
in March. Their visits were mainly confined to corner 
groceries where liquor was sold ; and in a few days six 
of these were reported closed, as far as the whiskey 
business was concerned. The women also appeared be- 
fore the Board of Supervisors, and presented a petition 
for an increase of the licenses paid by the liquor sellers. 
Mayor Otis gave his indorsement to the movement soon 
after it was begun, and wished the ladies success in all 
their efforts against intemperance. But the most unique 
feature of the movement in California was a bill passed 
by the General Assembly, making it a misdemeanor for 
a person to accept an invitation, or invite another, to 
drink at a public bar. 

In Pittsburg, Pa., the ladies organized, and pushed 
forward the work with considerable energy. Many 
other towns in Western Pennsylvania became aroused, 
and inaugurated the street praying movement. In 
Ithaca, Lockport, Elmira, and a large number of cities 
and villages in Western New York, the temperance re- 
vival was, for weeks, the all-absorbing topic. From 
Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan, reports came of the 
same work going on. Even from Louisiana came words 
of congratulation and encouragement to the "noble 
Christian women, throughout the country, in their up- 
rising against the gigantic vice of the age." In Leav- 
enworth, Kansas, the men went with the women to pray 
in the saloons, and consequently the whole party was 
very badly treated. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 469 

In Philadelphia, the work was begun quietly, and car- 
ried forward with very little noise, but a great work was 
accomplished. The saloon keepers took the alarm, and 
were advised by the Supreme Council of the Liquor 
Dealers' Association to close all their dram shops on 
Sunday. Some twenty, who failed to heed this injunc- 
tion, were arrested by the police, and heavily fined. If 
reports are to be trusted, the labors of the women were 
rewarded with greater results in Philadelphia than in 
any other large city. At a temperance meeting held in 
Horticultural Hall about the middle of April, the follow- 
ing statement was made by Mrs. Dr. Elizabeth J. French, 
regarding the great work which had been going on. It 
took the outside public, and even the Philadelphians 
themselves, by surprise. 

Saloons visited, 406 

Kef used admission to, 2 

Expelled from, ; 7 

Church members who had rented property for 

saloons, agreeing to rent them no more, ... 38 

Churches opened to the " band," ..... 212 

" refused, 2 

Saloons closed, 367 

Pledges signed by saloon keepers, 281 

" " " bar keepers who resigned, » 80 

" " " drunkards,. 1,613 

Children sent to Sunday school, 411 

Converted, 200 

Members of the praying band, 24,870 

Chicago developed more fierceness and bitter hostility 
between the two factions — or, at least, on one side — 
than any other of the large cities in which the work was 
commenced. The women began visiting saloons early 
in March ; but this method of operations met with in- 
tense opposition from the saloon keepers and their ad- 
herents, and was at length abandoned, without having 



470 INTEMPERANCE, 

produced any marked results. Efforts in the cause were 
not, however, wholly given up. The whiskey element 
having attained the ascendency in city politics, a propo- 
sition was made in the City Council to repeal the Sun- 
day saloon-closing ordinance. This aroused the whole 
body of women who were at all interested in the tem- 
perance cause ; and, on the afternoon of the 15th of' 
March, five hundred of them met at the Clark Street 
Methodist church. One hundred of the number were 
appointed a committee to present to the Council a re- 
monstrance, signed by sixteen thousand women of the 
city ; and while they were out on their mission, the rest 
remained in the church to pray. On their way to the 
City Hall, the delegation was followed by a constantly 
increasing crowd of men and boys, which became almost 
a mob before they reached the doors of the Council 
Chamber. 

The ladies were allowed to come in, and their memo- 
rial placed on file ; but the repeal ordinance was passed, 
in their very faces, by a vote of twenty-two to fourteen. 
Then came the tiying ordeal. The defeated ladies rose 
to depart, headed by a posse of police, who strove to 
break a way through the howling and groaning mob, 
who assailed them as they passed with the foulest epi- 
thets. The ladies, who were the wives and daughters 
of the most respected citizens, hid their faces in their 
hands, and hurried on through the gantlet of filth. A 
reporter of a morning paper thus described the scene : — 

"But when the open air was gained, the situation in 
no wise improved. Egress was had by the door in the 
rear leading to the alley next to the Grand Pacific. 
Thousands were crammed into this space — a howling 
menagerie. The police cleared the sidewalk, but the 
crowd lined the verge, and poured a volley of blasphemy 
and obscenity at the procession of ladies. When La 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 471 

Salle Street was reached, other thousands were awaiting 
their approach, and these howled even louder than those 
who greeted them in the alley. The noise was positively 
hideous; and this hooting, yelling, blasphemous mob, 
and five thousand roughs, the very offscourings of the 
saloons, flanked and followed them clear to the door of 
the church. Jostling them on the way ; spitting tobacco 
juice on their dresses ; pulling, at their chignons ; in 
some cases tripping them up ; knocking off the hats of 
their escorts, — brothers, husbands, or sons, — giving 
the latter kicks, cuffs, and digs in the ribs; and all the 
while the hooting, yelling, howling continued, and not 
infrequently members of* the procession would sink to 
the ground, swooning from very fright." 

The Chicago Times, in speaking editorially of this dis- 
graceful affair, used the following vigorous language : — 

" The onset of a howling mob of ruffians upon a com- 
mittee of respectable ladies that visited the Council 
Chamber last Monday night, to remonstrate against the 
repeal of the Sunday tippling law, cannot be character- 
ized in the terms of condemnation that it deserves. It 
was the most vile and disgraceful demonstration of the 
spirit of ruffianism ever witnessed in this city. Prob- 
ably not another city in any civilized country on the 
globe has ever witnessed, in time of peace, a perform- 
ance so unspeakably brutal. An invading army of bar- 
barians, licensed to commit any manner of outlawry, 
could hardly have exhibited towards a body of decent 
and well-behaved women a more disgusting temper of 
diabolism. It was the outspew of the slums, and grog- 
geries, and brothels ; it was the grand army of pimps, 
loafers, blacklegs, thieves, and drunken roughs, mar- 
shalled to defend scoundrelism and indecency against 
the protest of virtue. The ruffianly conduct of the per- 
formers was certainly worthy of their thoroughly brutal- 
ized nature." 



472 INTEMPEKANCE, 

It would be impossible, within the limits of an ordi- 
nary volume, to give anything like an adequate review 
of the woman's movement in half of the towns. and cities 
where it was inaugurated. And the story, if told, would 
only be a repetition of the same features, with merely a 
change of incidents and surroundings. The writer has 
aimed to present, as briefly as possible, an outline of the 
work in the most prominent cities, and in the smaller 
towns in Ohio, where the movement first attracted the 
attention of the country. Each peculiar phase has been 
described but once, although it may have appeared at 
many of the points referred to. The full history of this 
remarkable temperance revival cannot be written until 
the movement has subsided, and time enough has elapsed 
to allay the excitement, and trace out the main influ- 
ences set at work to their results. The two following 
chapters will supplement this review of the external fea- 
tures of the movement by giving some insight into the 
spirit and purposes of those most actively engaged in it. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 473 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

LICENSE VS. PROHIBITION. — THE PROHIBITIONISTS TRY TO CAPTURE 
THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. — LICENSE VIGOROUSLY OPPOSED BY THE 
LADIES. — THE FIRST GRAND CONVENTION IN COLUMBUS. — PROHI- 
BITION STATE CONVENTION AT MT. VERNON. — SECOND WOMAN'S 
CONVENTION. — MASS MEETINGS IN CINCINNATI FOR AND AGAINST 
LICENSE. — GRAND WOMAN'S ANTI-LICENSE CONVENTION IN CINCIN- 
NATI. 

The woman's movement had not proceeded far be- 
fore the old controversy regarding license and prohibi- 
tion was renewed with fresh interest. The prohibi- 
tionists, who had been a steadily increasing political 
party in Ohio for several years, made an early attempt 
to capture the movement and appropriate its results. 
They had been vainly striving for years to accomplish 
by law what the women were now doing by moral force. 
They saw the important bearing of the new reform 
upon their efforts, and promptly came forward to farther 
the cause and carry it in their arms. This disposition 
was apparent in the first convention, at Columbus, where 
an attempt was made to set the two factions, of workers 
by prayer and workers by legal force, by the ears. The 
latter, however, claimed to be in full sympathy with the 
gospel method, only they wanted to supplement it with 
a little law. They were anxious to hitch on the praying 
movement as a powerful auxiliary to their struggling 
political party. 

But the women refused to form any entangling al- 
liances. They hoped to conquer by love, and not by 



474 INTEMPEEANCE, 

force ; but if they failed, and had to resort to harsher 
measures, there were already sufficient laws lying idle 
on the statute-book to break up nine tenths of the saloons 
in the state, if once carried into execution. Whatever 
motives or feelings may have been developed later in the 
progress of the movement, the ladies, in its early stages, 
as a rule, never thought of law, or politics, or woman's 
rights. They worked with an eye single to the sup- 
pression of intemperance, and that by moral means. 
As to the right of women to vote, and of the state to 
govern individual action by prohibiting every man from 
selling liquor, the ladies paid not the slightest heed, so 
that they were not easily hitched on to the prohibition 
car. Dio Lewis, when asked for his advice, placed him- 
self in square opposition to prohibition. It had failed, 
he said, utterly, in Boston, and the question could only 
work mischief if introduced at that stage of affairs in 
the woman's movement. 

The question of license, also, soon grew into promi- 
nence. But whereas the ladies generally refused to 
have anything to do with prohibition, they were not slow 
in giving emphatic expression to their sentiments against 
license. The progress of the controversy on these points, 
however, may be better traced by a brief review of 
the principal mass meetings and conventions held, pro 
and con. 

The first general convention was held in Columbus, 
February 24. It was called by Dio Lewis, without any 
reference to license or prohibition, but simply as a means 
of interchanging experiences and congratulations, and 
establishing a uniform basis of operations throughout 
the state, where the movement had been begun. It was 
held in the City Hall, and attended b}- not less than fif- 
teen hundred delegates, mostly women, from the various 
fields of labor. The general tone, as well as the results 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 475 

of the convention, are summed up in the following plat- 
form, which was unanimously adopted : — 

. "Resolved, That the success of the Ohio woman's 
movement in behalf of the temperance reform* has given 
us substantial assurance that the traffic in and use of in- 
toxicating drinks can and will be removed from the state 
and nation. 

" Resolved, That in the prosecution of this work we 
rely on divine assistance, secured through fervent, per- 
sistent, and importunate prayers to Almighty God, of- 
fered in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and with hearts 
filled with love for souls. 

" Resolved, That faithful and persistent prayer must, 
as an inevitable result, be accompanied by efficient, per- 
sonal, and organized work. 

"Resolved, That, in addition to contributions of 
money, generously and freely given, it is recommended 
to the men aiding in the woman's effort to suppress 
intemperance in our communities, and to the women who 
carry on the work, to avoid all envy, hatred, malice, and 
uneharitableness, bitterness of speech, and denunciation 
of the men engaged in the liquor traffic ; to cultivate 
their acquaintance and kindly feeling, and by all honor- 
able and practicable means to assist them to change from 
a business injurious to society, to some other calling re- 
munerate to themselves and beneficial to the commu- 
nity. 

(Signed) 

Mrs. E. D. Stewart, Mrs. M. W. Banes, 

Sarah Pollard, C. M. Nichols, 

Miss Lizzie T. McFadden, H. S. Fullerton, 
Mrs. H. J. Sharp, J. M. Richmond, 

Committee, 

Two days later, the regular State Convention of the 

Prohibition Party was held in Mt. Vernon. Of course 

the woman's movement formed the principal subject for 

consideration. No one opposed it, but, as the last of the 

29 



476 INTEMPERANCE, 

following resolutions will show, they were not willing 
to leave it to itself : — 

" Whereas the manufacture, sale, and consumption 
of intoxicating liquors is in open violation of the law of 
God, and antagonistic to the moral, social, and political 
well-being of society ; and 

" Whereas the Christian women of Ohio are seeking to 
eradicate this evil by the instrumentality of prayer to 
Almighty God, and Christian, womanly entreaty with 
liquor sellers against their destructive traffic ; therefore, 

"Resolved, That we, as K delegates to the State Con- 
vention of the Prohibition Party of Ohio, in convention 
assembled, do hereby congratulate the noble self-sacri- 
ficing women of Ohio in their success, and assure them ■ 
of our sympathy and co-operation with them, and all 
other agencies of the temperance reform. 

"Resolved, That we will not only unite our prayers 
with our sisters to Almighty God, but we will call upon 
our brothers in Ohio to assist in making permanent the 
benefits of this moral uprising by the execution of law 
against all engaged in the liquor traffic, and to seek 
through the ballot-box the speedy enactment of such 
£>rohibitory laws as shall, extirpate the evil of intem- 
perance from our state. 

"S. L. Roberts." 

The following letter from Dio Lewis, representing the 
views of the friends of the woman's movement gener- 
ally, was received with the most severe denunciations 
from some of the speakers of the convention, among 
whom were Dr. Porter, of Columbus, and Rev. John Rus- 
sel, of Michigan : — 

" Columbus, February 24. 

" To the President of the Prohibitory Convention 

at Mi. Vernon. 
" I cannot suppose that your convention will take any 
interest in my opinion about prohibitory law ; but as I 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 477 

have been at work for some time with all my heart and 
strength in the cause of temperance in your great com- 
monwealth, you may, perhaps, permit me a word. 

" In my humble opinion no law could be more just, 
or more justifiable, than that which would remove the 
source of a large part of all our poverty, misery, and crime. 
The prohibitory liquor law, thoroughly enforced, would, 
I have never doubted, contribute more to the wealth of 
the state, and the welfare of society, than all the other 
laws of our statutes put together. But if this law be 
enacted before public sentiment is prepared to enforce 
it, it must divert the attention of temperance men from 
the vigorous and undivided employment of those moral 
influences which alone can give development and power 
to public sentiment. I affirm that its influence in New 
England has been disastrous up to this time. 

u If the great social and moral revolution now in prog- 
ress in Southern Ohio is not disturbed, but encouraged, 
within six months a prohibitory' liquor law could be as 
easily enforced in this state as the law against theft. 

" Will not the convention which meets in Mt. Vernon 
on the 26th, and which I believe will contain a large 
number of the truest friends of temperance in the state, 
give a word of hearty approval of the ' Woman's Tem- 
perance Movement ? ' 

" Trusting the convention may pardon this intrusion, 
I am, sir, and gentlemen, 

"Your obedient servant, 

"Dio Lewis." ' 

On the 17th of March, another State Temperance 
Convention assembled in Columbus. But it was a state 
convention only in name. There was no necessity for 
it ; and the call was so ambiguously, stated that when 
the few delegates assembled they could find nothing to 
engage their attention. The entire day was spent in 
discussing the object of the convention, and at the last 
moment an attempt was made to clear up the muddle by 
a series of resolutions ; but they were tabled, and the 



478 INTEMPERANCE, 

convention adjourned without even giving its reasons 
for coming together. 

The most important event, and one which brought 
the matter of license anew before the people, was 
an immense mass meeting in favor of a well-regu- 
lated license law, held at Exposition Hall, Cincinnati, 
Saturday evening, March 28. The attendance was very 
large, probably reaching upwards of five thousand. The 
larger part of the audience was composed of Germans, 
and prominent wholesale and retail liquor dealers, who 
were present in large numbers. There were also many 
prominent business men and well-known citizens present, 
who, taken together with the high character of the 
speakers, gave a tone of respectability to the meeting. 
Speeches were made by Judge Whitman, Judge Taft, 
Emil Rothe, Rev. M. Lilienthal, George F. Davis, S. 
A. Kittredge, James H. Laws, and O. J. Dodds. The 
meeting was presided over by George F. Davis, a temper- 
ance man. It was opened by prayer, and mainly con- 
fined to arguments in favor of a "judicious license law " 
to regulate the traffic in liquors. An occasional side 
thrust was directed towards Dio Lewis ; but in the main 
the woman's movement was treated with respect. The 
following resolution, which was adopted without dissent, 
has, at least, the merit of brevity. It was the text upon 
which half a dozen lengthy speeches were made. 

" Resolved, that it is the sense of this meeting that a 
judicious license law meets the wants of the times, and 
affords the best solution of the question of traffic in in- 
toxicating liquors." 

Out of the many speeches delivered on this occasion, 
we give a few brief extracts from that of Judge Al- 
phonso Taft. It embraces, substantially, the arguments 
used by all. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS BEMEDY. 479 

" If men are permitted to drink, some men must be 
permitted to sell. The right to drink and the right to sell 
go together. A judicious law to regulate, by license, 
the sale of liquors, would close at once more than half 
of the drinking places in Cincinnati, and at the same time 
improve the character of those which should remain. 
It would limit excesses, and to a considerable extent re- 
store a respect for and observance of the laws on the 
subject. 

" The principle of imposing a moral guardianship, by- 
law or otherwise, of good men or good women over their 
fellow-citizens, in the exercise of their tastes in innocent 
things, has usually provoked rather than repressed ex- 
cesses. Free agency is a principle of God's moral gov- 
ernment. All attempts by men to defeat the fair opera- 
tion of that principle have failed. 

" I cannot doubt the humane and religious motives of 
those engaged in the present temperance crusade in the 
city. But it seems to me that they are not quite satis- 
fied with God's plan in dealing with moral subjects. 
His plan is too slow, and allows too much liberty. They 
would have a certain fixed control delegated to good men 
and women over the unwary consciences of their fellow- 
men. One effect of their well-meant zeal is to punish 
the innocent and excuse the guilty. The man who 
drinks to excess is the object of their complacency, while 
the rest of the world are charged with the guilt of his 
excesses. This is not a fair distribution of human re- 
sponsibility. 

" Signing a pledge I regard as useless, and it tends 
to depreciate a man's self-respect. As a motive it has 
no meaning. To do or not to do a thing which concerns 
one's self, for no better reason than that he has promised 



480 INTEMPERANCE, 

to himself, or to persons who have no right to .exact such 
a promise, is trifling with his own independence. If a 
thing ought not to be done, stop doing it. A promise 
or a pledge makes it neither better nor worse. 

" It is an objectionable feature of the present crusade 
that it intrudes religious observances upon those who do 
not ask them. Prayer for or with those who desire it 
is commendable ; but when forced upon the unwilling it 
is a mockery of God, as well as of the victims on whom 
it is forced." 

This mass meeting of course created a necessity for 
another of an opposite nature. The anti-license portion 
of the community felt called upon to make its voice 
heard. The license men had provided able speakers to 
sustain their views, and turned out an immense crowd to 
hear them ; yet there were numbers and eloquence on 
the other side which only needed an opportunity for 
public expression, to make their influence felt. The 
meeting was called for Thursday night, April 9, in Pike's 
Opera House. Meteorologically considered, it proved to 
be the worst night of the season. A cold rain and snow 
rendered the streets almost impassable ; yet the building 
was well filled. Friends of the cause turned out as a 
religious duty, and made up a large and enthusiastic au- 
dience; Hon. C. W. Rowland presided, and he, with 
the Hon. Will Cumback of Indiana, Hon. E. D. Mans- 
field and Rev. Dr. Walden, made the speeches. The 
stage was filled with prominent gentlemen, and with a 
choir of singers backed by a full brass band. 

The following resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted, gave expression to the sentiment of the meet- 
ing : — 

" Resolved, That what society acknowledges alike inju- 
rious and dangerous to its interests should be neither 
protected nor encouraged by law. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 481 

u Resolved, therefore, That the traffic in intoxicating 
liquors should not be licensed, and that the Constitution 
should not prevent the legislature from restraining, 
limiting, or suppressing it. 

"Resolved, That the existing laws, or others that the 
legislature may pass to diminish or suppress the evils of 
this traffic, should be strictly enforced in all respects.'' 

• 

One of the most interesting and argumentative speeches 
was that of the venerable E. D. Mansfield. We append 
.two or three of the concluding paragraphs, which con- 
tain, in a nutshell, the principal reasons why most Chris- 
tian people are found on the anti-license side. 

" The third idea is, that they will make this business 
respectable. They have three thousand funnels now, in 
this city, to run the liquor out of, and they think by the 
license system they can reduce the three thousand fun- 
nels to one thousand funnels. But do you think there 
will one drop less of liquor run out of those one 
thousand than out of the three thousand now ? Not a bit 
of it. You will never find a brewer or a distiller going 
to any public meeting to reduce his own business. No 
common sense man would do it. The thousand funnels, 
if they are reduced down to a thousand, will run more 
liquor than the three thousand. They will make it more 
respectable — that is, by enlarging it, they think it will 
be more respectable. How respectable an aristocracy of 
drinking-houses would be ! [Laughter and applause.] 

"Did you ever hear .of such a thing in regard to 
drinking-houses ? Did you ever hear of such an aristoc- 
racy and such respectability? [Laughter.] Can you 
conceive of such an idea ? Now I will tell you what it 
looks like to me. It would be like a gentleman who 
finds his garden full of snakes, and they begin to multi- 
ply until it becomes very uncomfortable, and he wonders 
what he will do with them. He hardly knows what to 



482 INTEMPERANCE, 

do ; but at last a thought seizes him. He says, ' I will 
license them ! ' [Laughter.] License snakes in a gar- 
den ! And for what reason will he license them ? ; Why,' 
he says, 4 the garter snakes will all be killed, and all the 
rattlesnakes will be left.' [Renewed laughter.] I never 
got hold of such an idea as these people got when they 
declare they are going to kill all the little saloons, and 
leave the big ones to bite and poison worse than ever. 

" I know of only one reason why there should be a 
license law. It will put some money into the treasury. 
But what sort of money will it be ? The Anglo-Saxons, 
our ancestors, had a compromise with every crime, upon 
which every one of them could be paid out. Murder, 
suicide, and every crime could be paid for if you put the 
price high enough. . Everything of the kind was com- 
mitted and paid for. Now, if we go on and license 
every evil in society, we shall be just where they were. 
We shall be commuting and compromising with murder, 
suicide, death, and ruin, and every dollar that goes into 
the treasury will groan and exclaim as its victims roll 
along to the grave, rattling over your streets, * Murder, 
suicide, paupers.' Every dollar in your treasury will 
tell of crime commuted, and the groans of ruin and 
destruction will go up to the God of Sabaoth, who hears 
and loathes all crime. [Great applause.] " 

About this time the constitutional convention, which 
was in session in Cincinnati, came to the question of 
license or no license in the new constitution. The 
division of the members on the matter was very nearly 
equal ; those from the country districts generally oppos- 
ing, and those from the cities generally favoring, license. 
The question presented itself in various forms to the 
convention, and is not, at the present writing, disposed 
of. The following is the proposition of Judge West, 
which excited much discussion both in temperance and 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 483 

anti-temperance circles. It is designed to be submitted 
as a separate article to the electors, for ratification or 
rejection, and if ratified to stand in lieu of Article XV. 
of the present constitution. 

Section 1. Except in compliance with, and upon 
the terms and conditions prescribed by law, no person 
shall traffic in or sell intoxicating liquors within this 
state. 

Sect. 2. Laws shall be passed to prevent the evils 
and compensate the injuries resulting from the sale or 
furnishing of intoxicating liquors, and from the intoxica- 
tion consequent thereon. 

Sect. 3. County commissioners, township trustees, 
and municipal authorities, shall have power severally to 
restrict or prohibit the traffic in, and sale of, intoxicating 
liquors within their respective jurisdiction, and to impose 
thereon terms and conditions other than and in addition 
to those prescribed by law. 

Sect. 4. Nothing in this constitution shall be con- 
strued as denying to the General Assembly the power to 
restrict or prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors, or to regulate the same in any manner not 
consistent with the provisions of this article. 

In view of the importance of this matter, in the new 
constitution, a call was issued for a third grand conven- 
tion of the Women's Temperance Leagues of Ohio, to 
give an emphatic expression of opinion on the license 
question. The convention met on the 22d of April, 
and was the largest and most important of the series. 
The extent to which the organized temperance move- 
ment had now spread in the state, may be judged from 
the fact that one hundred and forty-one different leagues, 
in seventy-three different counties, were represented by 
delegates. The Ninth Street Baptist church — the place 
appointed for meeting — proved entirely inadequate in 
size, and the convention adjourned to Wesley chapel, 
— the largest church audience-room in the city, and 



484 INTEMPERANCE, 

capable of holding over two thousand people. During 
the whole of the sessions of the convention this church 
was crowded — sometimes almost to suffocation. 

The first subject for consideration, after the body was 
organized, was, of course, the license question. A com- 
mittee was appointed, consisting of one from each county 
in the state, to draft a memorial to the constitutional 
convention, indicative of the feeling of the temperance 
people of Ohio generally, and the women's leagues in 
particular. After deliberation, the committee returned 
an article which they offered as a substitute for the 
proposed article in the constitution. With the exception 
of the first section, it was substantially the same as that 
submitted by Judge West. The first section, however, 
provides that the state shall not, in any way, license the 
traffic in intoxicating liquors. 

The debate which followed on the report revealed a 
great unanimity of sentiment against license in any 
form ; but there was considerable difference of opinion as 
to the best manner of bringing the matter before the 
constitutional convention. But the report was finally 
adopted, amid great enthusiasm, and a large committee 
of ladies was appointed to convey the memorial to the 
constitutional convention, where it was received and 
laid on the table for future consideration. The debate 
on the second and third sections of the article was inter- 
esting, as showing the position of the delegates in regard 
to prohibition. A few of the most radical were for the 
complete and eternal prohibition of the traffic by state 
laws. They argued that it made no difference whether 
the general public was prepared for it or not ; it was the 
duty of every temperance man to declare for the total 
annihilation of alcohol. The large majority of the con- 
vention, however, and those of the most sober sense, 
believed that it would be folly to demand a prohibition 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 485 

law now, when the public sentiment is not able to carry 
into execution the laws that are already upon the statute- 
books. In other words, a little law, well enforced, 
would be better than a sweeping prohibitory law, which 
it was absurd to suppose could be carried out, especially 
in the large cities. 

Another important, but somewhat chimerical, project 
before the convention, was that of memorializing Con- 
gress to abolish the revenue from all intoxicating liquors, 
used as a beverage, including native wines, ale and beer, 
and thus withdraw the apparent support of the govern- 
ment from the traffic. The debate was continued with 
great skill and pertinacity by both sides. 

" In God's name," said Mrs. Weitzel, of Middletown, 
" let us not recognize by law the great evil ; let us wash 
our hands clean of participation in the wrong, if we 
expect a just God to reward our labors in this cause. 
Women themselves often, very often, have to pay this 
tax. Their husbands' liquor bills are sent to them to 
pay from their hard earnings at the needle or wash-tub. 
If you increase the tax, you increase their already heavy 
burdens ; you take from them and their needy children 
thje bread from their mouths and clothing from their 
backs." 

Another speaker wanted the convention to consider 
two facts: — 

1. That Congress has no power, under the Constitu- 
tion, to authorize the manufacture of ardent spirits, or 
the vending of them in the different states, and has no 
power to prohibit the same. 

2. That many men have large amounts of money 
invested in the liquor business, and that Congress simply 
lays its hands upon the property, and says it shall pay a 
certain revenue. This lessens the profits of the busi- 
ness, and checks the sale. If Congress lets the traffic 



486 INTEMPERANCE, 

alone, it would simply offer a premium to and facilitate 
this nefarious business. He thought whiskey should be 
more heavily burdened with tax than any other kind of 
property. 

The subject was finally referred to a committee, who 
reported in favor of postponing further consideration of 
the matter until the next convention. A compromise 
was, however, struck, in voting to ask Congress to pro- 
hibit the importation of intoxicating liquors.- The 
remainder of the time of the convention was devoted to 
hearing brief reports from delegates, concerning the prog- 
ress of the work in their several districts. They generally 
indicated no abatement of interest in the cause through- 
out the state, but a more fixed determination to shut up 
the saloons, by all available means of law and love. 
Allusions to the former method were more frequent than 
in the first convention, showing that the gospel plan is, 
to some extent, losing its distinctive character. 



ITS ASPECT AND- ITS KEMEDY. 437 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

SOME ACCOUNT OP THE OPPOSITION TO THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. — 
BITTER ARTICLES AND ABSURD STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE GERMAN 
PAPERS. — A SPECIMEN OF BEER DRINKERS' RESOLUTIONS. — ATTI- 
TUDE OF THE CATHOLICS. — ARCHBISHOP PURCELL'S LETTER. — A 
MANSFIELD PRIEST'S ANATHEMA. — DR. J. G. HOLLAND IN OPPOSI- 
TION, ETC., ETC. 

In the foregoing chapters, the progress of the woman's 
movement has been viewed mainly from the orthodox 
temperance stand-point. The intense opposition which 
it excited has only been referred to incidentally, in the 
course of the narrative. The character of this opposi- 
tion, however, is in some cases so extraordinary as to 
render a more extended notice of it necessary to the 
completeness of this history. We therefore give place 
to a number of extracts from the articles and speeches 
of the anti-temperance press and orators. 

The following correct translations of some of the 
articles published in the German papers of Cincinnati 
appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette. The movement was 
first treated by these papers in a sarcastic and humorous 
way, as in this extract from an early editorial in the 
Volksfreund : — 

" The women's war against the saloons, in the various 
southern counties of our state, is still in full bloom. By 
companies the banded ' water virgins ' march from saloon 
to saloon, fall upon their knees, and fight ' King Alco- 
hol ' and c Emperor Gambrinus ' with singing and pray- 
ing, so that the windows rattle. In Greenfield, Highland 
County, they boast that they have already prayed and 



488 INTEMPERANCE, 

sung down eight saloons ; -and the other six they hope to 
capture soon. Of the four druggists, two have signed 
the pledge ; the other two, as most incorrigible sinners, 
continue to make opposition, but will undoubtedly finally 
have to surrender. A German saloon keeper, by the 
name of Hiens, had declared his willingness to sell no 
more whiskey, and to restrict himself to the sale of beer 
and ale. But to such a capitulation the managers, with 
and without hoop skirts, will not consent ; they demand 
an unconditional surrender ; that is, to water, tea, coffee, 
and snuff. The temperance law they do not for the pres- 
ent design to invoke, but will endeavor to capture peace- 
able citizens by labors of love and a glib tongue." 

But the " labors of love and a glib tongue " continued 
to spread and achieve such great results, that the hu- 
morous was changed for the impartial and philosophical 
tone. Witness an editorial from the Vblksblatt : — 

" The temperance movement of the women in the 
interior of the state seems not yet to have reached its 
culminating point, but continues to spread to other lo- 
calities that have, up to this time, been free from the 
mania. In larger cities, like Cincinnati, Cleveland, To- 
ledo, Columbus, Dayton, &c, such excesses, of course, 
would be impossible ; but in the rural districts, and 
smaller towns and villages, they' have full sweep, and 
but few will dare to think of resistance or opposition. 
Under these circumstances, those who are affected there- 
by seem, for the most part, to have come to the conclu- 
sion to let the storm expend its fury. Movements of 
this kind are usually of but short duration. The more 
violent they are in their first assault, the sooner will they 
come to an end. The Know Nothing Inovement, for 
instance, which in 1854 and 1855 bore all before it, and 
at .first seemed irresistible, soon afterwards lost itself in 
the sand, without leaving a trace behind. The present 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS KEMEDY. 489 

woman's movement is evidently destined to the same 
fate, for the excitement and strain upon all the powers 
are too great to be of long duration." 

The movement refusing to die out, in accordance with 
the prediction of its enemies, the beer-drinking editors 
began to show their tempers. The Waechter am Erie, 
published in Cleveland, relieved itself thus : — 

u There is, in our view, a distortion and ugliness in 
this~whole farce which is disgusting to us, and seems like 
a profanation of prayer ; for in reality this movement to 
pray away the drinking saloons is nothing else than a 
lynch procedure. Behind the psalm-singing women 
stand the gentlemen heroes of the slipper ; and gallants, 
too, if necessary, adopt other measures, if the soft, pious 
cooing should prove unavailing. The whole offers in 
the tedious winter months — and insufferably tedious it 
is in such nests — a somewhat exciting and amusing 
entertainment; and then one can get his 'bitters' any- 
way in the drug store, or it can be bought from one or 
the other of the large places on the sly. The saloon 
keepers are not to be blamed if they retreat from these 
hou ridings. Who can, for any length of time, bear the 
howling, and this folly in the mask of morality and vir- 
tue ? No ; more annoying than a swarm of mosquitos, 
worse than a bed full of bed-bugs, is such a woman's 
siege ; and in some places they have made the thing very 
comfortable for themselves by planting a movable tab- 
ernacle, with stove and chairs, before the saloon, in 
which from early morning till late at night ' the good 
work ' is carried on in the most comfortable manner, in- 
terchangeably with tattle. Think of the condition of a 
saloon keeper who receives a visit of this kind. Is he 
not in a worse case than a sensible man in the midst of 
a swarm of fools ? " 

A correspondent of the Vblksfreund, writing from 
Portsmouth, says, — 



490 INTEMPERANCE, 

" The temperancists here are beginning to be the 
plague of the land. Not content with howling against 
all devotees of the spirituous in their public prayer meet- 
ings, they now make raids upon the saloons, and by 
singing pious hymns seek to induce the beer and whiskey 
sellers to leave the broad road of vice, and to close their 
saloons. Even the most unyielding and determined 
must, under the application of such a moral torture, 
eventually become tractable, and be glad to dispose of 
his supply of whiskey to his tormentors for a considera- 
tion. Thus they bought of a beer saloon keeper of this 
place, ' Dutch Michael,' the whole stock of whiskey he 
had — about four gallons — for thirty dollars, and then 
sprinkled the street with the precious stuff. If any one 
takes a drink to strengthen his stomach, then these camel- 
swallowers and gnat-strainers set up a howl ; but if the 
city treasury is robbed of the insignificant sum of ten 
thousand dollars, they hold their tongues, and cover the 
crime with the mantle of Christian charity." 

But still the praying went on, and the saloons melted 
away before the advancing women, like the frost before 
the sun. Then the German editors began to get mad about 
it. The movement was always referred to as the " pray- 
er pest," and the tone of editorial articles was some- 
what like the following, which was published in Die 
G-egenwart, of Covington. In speaking of the Meth- 
odists, whom the editor holds responsible for all this tem- 
perance agitation, it demands that they should all be 
hung to lamp-posts, and swept from the face of the earth, 
for the following reasons : — 

fcC In the first place they undermine the morals of the 
people. They furnish more rascals, great and small, 
counterfeiters, adulterers, perjurers, and bank swindlers, 
than all the other sects put together. They are the 
founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, the 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 491 

principal school of all gallows birds and swindlers. S. 
Colfax, former Vice-President of the United States, the 
greatest perjurer and scoundrel of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, is a Methodist, and the father of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. General O. O. Howard, Chief of 
the Freedmen's Bureau, who has swindled God and all 
the world, is a Methodist. The suit of the Methodist 
Book Concern in New York, which it took years to de- 
cide, and in which all those who were interested were 
convicted of perjury, is an evidence of their wickedness ; 
the many complaints against their ministers for adultery, 
seduction, and other crimes, are an evidence of their im- 
morality. We could furnish evidences by the thousand, 
if we had the room. 

" Secondly, they trample the doctrines of Christ under 
foot, and make a mockery of prayer and religion. They 
boast to the world that they believe in Jesus, and at the 
same time they fight for Satan and his kingdom. Christ, 
when he instituted the holy supper, took the cup of 
wine, drank of it himself, and gave it to his disciples to 
drink, saying, ' This do in my memory.' The Methodist 
church of America resolved that they would use no wine 
at the communion, because it is a sin. Now, we ask every 
sensible man whether this pack prays to Him who said, 
' This do in my memory,' or whether they pray to him 
who said to Christ, ' All this glory will I give thee if 
thou wilt fall down and worship me.' The answer was, 
4 Depart from me, Satan.' We say, Methodist, do not 
name the name of Christ, for you do not believe on- him. 
We pronounce every Methodist, or other hypocrite who 
says that wine drinking is a sin, and at the same time 
professes to believe the doctrine of Christ, a mean, sneak- 
ing liar ; for every man who declares that the commands 
and doctrines of Christ are a sin, is a fool and an ass, if 
he says that he believes in Christ. 
30 ' 



492 INTEMPEBANCE, 

" And now, thirdly, the greatest crime of the Meth- 
odists is this : That in their churches they adopt resolu- 
tions that are inimical to the liberties of the people. 
They send hundreds of petitions to the various legisla- 
tive bodies, as Methodists, in order to pass laws accord- 
ing to their taste and for their benefit, and to the injury 
of the rest of the people. They come together in their 
churches, and conspire, and discuss, and resolve how they 
may attack the property, and business, and the lives of 
their fellow-men. They come forth from their churches 
in troops, and interfere with the business of our country- 
men, threaten them with death, and deprive them of 
their liberty. They pray that their God may strike the 
saloonists and their families dead. (Very Christian — is 
it not ?) 

" Is this right ? is it Christian ? is it humane or citizen- 
like ? We say no. 

" We say to this band, Halt ! for your hour has come. 
Become a man and a citizen, or you must be destroyed. 
We fed the South with powder and lead, when it at- 
tacked the rights and the existence of this country. Just 
so must this rabble be punished. We are not at all afraid 
to write against this band because a few Germans are to 
be found among them. These should keep away from 
them, or leave them and become decent men. It is sad, 
but true, that among the German Methodists there are 
some who are not exactly the best of brethren ; but then, 
they may yet be converted, and return again to the bosom 
of humanity. May the light shine upon you." 

It is but fair to say that the tone of the more influen- 
tial German papers in Cincinnati never became so bitter 
as the above, although many false and exceedingly un- 
just statements were published. The following is a 
single instance : After the ladies had been engaged for 
some time in the crusade in Cincinnati, the Volktfreund 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 493 

one morning came out with the charge that the leader 
in prayer of one of the bands was seen so drunk during 
one of the services that she could scarcely rise from 
her knees when the prayer was ended, and reeled away 
to the church in the most disgraceful manner. This 
seemed too grave a charge to pass over in silence, and a 
committee of gentlemen was appointed to wait on Mr. 
Haacke, the editor of the paper, for his authority and 
proofs. He refused to give either, but repeated the 
charge. At length the truth of the matter came out. 
A ragged and dirty Irish woman one day came stagger- 
ing into the circle of kneeling women, in a state of in- 
toxication, knelt with them, and afterwards followed 
them to the church. The German readers of the Volks- 
freund never got the benefit of the correction, and to 
this day believe that one of the leading praying women 
was out on her mission too drunk to walk ! 

Another absurd stor}^, which was started with still less 
foundation, was to the effect that the women engaged in 
the movement were paid regularly for their services, at 
the rate of three dollars a day. It was in vain to deny 
this ridiculous charge to any of the less intelligent Ger- 
mans ; they had read it in their papers, and therefore it 
was gospel. Admitting the truth of the .statement, it 
would have been an expensive campaign for somebody. 
Five hundred dollars would have been needed every 
night for weeks and months to pay off the bands for 
their venal prayers and songs. 

Having given considerable space to reports of tem- 
perance meetings, it might be of interest to produce a 
representative of another class. The following resolu- 
tions, adopted by a large anti-temperance mass meeting 
held at Hamilton, in March, show the sentiment enter- 
tained by the beer drinkers, in regard to the woman's 
movement : — 



494 INTEMPERANCE, 

"Resolved, By all the German citizens of Hamilton 
and suburbs, — 

" 1. That we organize in order that we may be better 
able, after deliberation, to cope with this nuisance, aDd 
that we adopt such lawful measures from time to time as 
are necessary to secure us our just liberty and rights. 

11 2. That we never will permit that our religious and 
social liberties, and especially the latter, be infringed 
upon or taken from us under the cloak of a religious 
movement, by which religion itself is only disgraced 
and mocked. 

" 3. That under temperance, according to its proper 
meaning — an expression to which, with many other 
misused words, its true meaning ought to be restored — 
we understand moderation in the use of spiritual liquors, 
a matter which we highly appreciate, and whose opposite, 
4 drunkenness,' we deeply despise, and for whose abolish- 
ment we are ready to do all in our power, and for which 
we shall strive with all our influence. 

" 4. That we consider the movement known as the 
women's whiskey war an unlawful one, and that a hypo- 
critical attack is made by it upon social liberty, and a 
sacrilege is committed upon religious exercises, especially 
the exercise of prayer, which, as private devotion, was 
by the Founder of Christianity himself emphatically 
destined not to take place at the street corners, but in 
the solitude of a closed room. To term it in short 
words, we can call it nothing but lunacy, and a fanatical 
swindle. 

" 5. That we in this movement recognize a total rev- 
olution of the Christian, social orders, by which the man 
is the head of the woman, and not the opposite. * We 
recognize in it an aberration of the women from God's 
destined path of duty in which man and woman can be 
satisfied, and that they ought to consider that Christianity 
first raised the woman to an equal being with the man, 
but surely not to the end that man should become the 
slave of their notions and imbecile ideas. 

" 6. That we, as citizens of German descent, without 
difference as to religion, will use every means in our 
power to secure and hold for ourselves the liberties which 
the Constitution grants. 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 495 

" 7. That we look upon all advocates of the move- 
ment as enemies to religion and social liberty. 

" 8. That we will give no candidate, be it for state, 
county, or city office, our support or vote who takes part 
in the movement. 

" 9. That these resolutions shall stand and be carried 
into effect as long as the now raging temperance mania 
exists, and until these imbecile women, as we wish, for 
their own good, may soon prove the case, become sensi- 
ble again, and are prepared to return to their own re- 
spective duties. 

" A saloon keeper in Seven Mile will apply to-morrow, 
through Van Derbeer & Symmes, for an injunction 
against temperance visitation in that village." 

Reference has once or twice been made to the attitude 
of the Catholics on this question of women praying down 
the evils of intemperance. In some towns the Catholic 
priest came out decidedly for it ; in others he was favor- 
ably inclined, but afraid of the consequences of his 
espousing the cause. Generally, however, the move- 
ment met with determined opposition from the authori- 
ties in the Catholic church. Archbishop Purcell, whose 
word is law in Catholic circles, was early appealed to to 
define his position in the matter, which he did in the 
following letter : — 

" St. Paul, in his instructions to the Romans, and 
through. them, to all Christians, advises them 'not to be 
more wise than it behooveth to be wise, but to be wise 
unto sobriety.' Rom. xii. 3. 

" The undersigned takes this occasion to answer the 
numerous applications made to him for sympathy and co- 
operation in the crusade against intemperance. 

" He does not now, for the first time, express publicly 
his sympathy with the object, if not with the means 
adopted by the crusaders, or his readiness to co-operate 
with every legitimate and wise effort for the suppression? 
of intemperance. Scarcely has he ever had the spiritua.il 



496 INTEMPERANCE, 

care of a congregation, as priest or bishop, without warn- 
ing those who heard him of the temporal and eternal 
evils resulting from excess. In sermons and pastoral 
letters he has insisted on the necessity and exhorted to 
the observance of holy temperance, going so far in one 
of those letters, many years ago, as to express the wish 
that not one of his flock were a low, disreputable saloon 
keeper. For ten years he practised total abstinence* 
hoping, by example, to induce those whom his. words 
reached not, to shun the vice that leads to every other 
vice. He is even now totally abstinent. This he con- 
siders pretty good ; but he cannot go to the excess sug- 
gested by some of the lady league. He cannot instruct 
or preach that it is a sin for a day laborer, who has to 
carry the hod, on a broiling hot day in July or August, 
up a steep ladder to the third or fourth story of a build- 
ing, to restore his exhausted strength hy a glass or two 
of beer. This he would consider cruel. If the toiler 
has the physical endurance and the will to do without 
the beverage, in the name of God let him do it. And 
if he cannot take this refreshment without drinking to 
excess, let him abstain altogether, or quit the hard work, 
or die — for it is better so than to be a drunkard. 

" Again, the archbishop cannot ask a clergyman to 
blaspheme the divine Author of our religion by asking 
him why he made wine at Cana, in Galilee, to recreate 
guests at a wedding. Why he instituted the Eucharist, 
the Lord's Supper, partly in wine, of which he com- 
manded the apostles to drink. Why Jehovah's Holy 
Spirit teaches us in the Bible that God made i wine to 
cheer the heart of man.' Psalms ciii. 13. And the vine 
to ask why it should desert its ' wine that cheereth God 
and men.' Judges ix. 13. Why did the dying patriarch, 
under the influence of divine inspiration, wish his son 
• 4 abundance of wine ? ' Why, again, does the Holy Ghost 
tell us that it is 'hurtful always to drink water, or wine, 
ibut to mix them is pleasant, or sometimes to drink one 
.and sometimes, the other'? 2 Mccb., hist verse of the 
•Old Testament. 

" But God, they object, did not make the wine. We 
have shown that he did make 4t. Neither did he make 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 497 

the bread, except in the miracle of the loaves in the 
desert. But he made the grape and the wheat, from 
which wine and bread are made, the one by. a process 
not much simpler than the other. Catholics, then, go to 
the Bible, and they understand it ; and with the blessed 
Book before them, we cannot with bell, book, and can- 
dle, with praying and psalm-singing in the mud, excom- 
municate those who drink, or those who dispense the 
liquid which God has made to be used with moderation 
and thanksgiving. This, then, is the verdict of the Word 
of God : Use, do not abuse ; and if you cannot use with- 
out abusing, use not at all. 

" Some few years past, three or four Protestant clergy- 
men called on the archbishop to ask his co-operation in 
an attempt to abate the nuisance of the grog-shops. He 
told them that when there was the question of the li- 
censing, or absolute prohibiting, of the sale of inebriating 
liquors, he earnestly recommended the imposing of as 
heavy a fine, or license, on the venders of such liquid as 
they could bear, and inexorably to close, by all the pen- 
alties known to the law, those vile bar-rooms where bad 
liquor is sold to minors, drunkards, men or women, who 
are now the pests of the community, a disgrace to their 
families, and teaching by word and example the broad 
way to perdition. This, he conceived, would be the 
most effectual check to the evil we deplore. It would 
diminish, perhaps, by two thousand the three thousand 
4 spiracula ditis,' those craters of hell, by which our city 
is in peril of combustion ; and it would pay the city 
much, if not all, the expense of the workhouse and other 
institutions which honest and sober citizens are now 
shamefully taxed to support. 

"All which is respectfully submitted to all whom it 
may concern. f J. B. Puecell, 

" Archbishop of Cincinnati. 

This letter was ably replied to by Dr. J. G. Holland. 
We quote one or two brief extracts : — ■ 

" Besides, would it not be well for us to remember 
the women who engage in this crusade are working in 



498 INTEMPERANCE, 

the only way that Providence has left open to them ? 
Who are they? They are the mothers, wives, sisters, 
and daughters of men whoms they have seen, }~ear after 
year, dropping into the graves of drunkards. They have 
suffered worse than death that the rum seller might live. 
They have seen their loved ones become sots, idiots, 
madmen. They have seen their fortunes squandered ; 
they have found themselves disgraced ; they have been 
cursed, beaten, bruised ; they have seen their peaceful 
and happy homes turned into places of fear and torment. 
Boys that were nursed on the bosoms of some of them 
have been transformed by drink into fiends. Men whose 
kiss of love and loyalty honored them with wifehood, 
have degenerated into beasts. For these, through weary, 
suffering years, they have prayed. Nay, they have knelt 
with them, and held up their weak and imbecile hands 
while they prayed for themselves. Day after day they 
have done this, as men have gone to their business 
through temptations that beset their path at every cor- 
ner, and have received them at night only to cover them 
from sight with shame, and sink back into their old 
despair. The sorrows through which these women have 
walked have been simply immeasurable. No words of 
mine can describe them ; no words of any man can ex- 
aggerate them. 

" They have looked to the leaders of the church for 
help ; have they had it ? They have looked to the politi- 
cians for help ; have they received it ? They have asked 
for laws, which were easily made to satisfy their clamor ; 
have they been executed ? They have been pure and 
abstinent themselves ; has their example been of any 
avail? They have pleaded with all the eloquence of 
love with those who have broken their vows to cherish 
and protect them, to forsake their vice, and have re- 
ceived only curses or promises not worth a straw. What, 
in God's dear name, was there left for them to do, but 
just what they are doing, and what you condemn ? Who 
have driven these women to this great necessity ? Who 
have forced them into a position from which all their 
natural instincts dissuade them ? Who have made their 
crusade absolutely necessary, in order to save the men 
of the present generation from going to ruin ? Men, 



ITS ASPECT AND ITS REMEDY. 499 

and men of influence, with shame be it said ! If the 
leaders of the Christian church had done their duty, and 
the leaders of state and national politics had done theirs, 
there would not be a dram shop to-day between Canada 
and the Gulf. The whole business has thus been left to 
God and the. women ; and the latter are praying in the 
churches and in the street, and pushing on their divine 
and peaceful crusade, because the men of America have 
failed to do their duty. Shall a Christian man, in high 
station or low, lift his voice against them ? Rather let 
him hide his head in shame and self-contempt. 

" You say that you, or those for whom you speak, can- 
not, ' with bell, book, and candle, with praying and psalm- 
singing in the mud, excommunicate those who drink, or 
those who dispense the liquid which God has made to be 
used with moderation and thanksgiving.' What is this 
liquid ? Is it wine ? That is the liquid you talk about ; 
that is the liquid the drinking of which you find justi- 
fied in the Bible. But whiskey is not wine. Whiskey 
is the liquid that ■burns up stomach, brains, morality, 
industry, prosperity, life. Whiskey fills a hundred thou- 
sand homes with misery, and is poisoning the blood of 
the generations. Whiskey fills the poorhouses, and hos- 
pitals, and prisons. Whiskey is associated with nearly 
every crime committed in your community. It is the 
grand, fiery fountain of the national woe and crime. 
This is what the women of Ohio are seeking to banish ; 
and they know that with it must go that which all the 
national experience has proved will be used as a cover 
for the baser liquid." 

But while men of high position and great influence 
were carrying on the discussion with courtesy and mod- 
eration, some of the smaller fish strung together a series 
of bitter denunciations, and imagined they had thereby 
settled the question forever. The following short ex- 
tract from an open letter by the Catholic priest of the 
flourishing city of Mansfield, Ohio, deserves a place 
among the literature of the campaign, as a sample of its 
kind ; — 



500 INTEMPERANCE, 

" The woman's temperance movement is absurd in its 
nature, in its concomitants, in its advocates, and in its ef- 
forts. Neither signing a pledge nor the screams of crazy 
women will help so much as to make one man temperate. 
Suppose that our Mansfield ladies fill with their prayer- 
ful screams, and their ' Come to Jesus,' and their glory s, 
and their amens, our narrow Main Street. How many 
of the saloon keepers and their visitors will be moved to 
pledge themselves in sincerity to abstain? Will they 
call upon the professional drunkard, or upon those who 
use with reason of beer and wine ? The first class will 
be as much moved as Balaam's ass to pass the narrow 
gate. The second class will look upon you as a set of 
bigots and lunatics, and with great reason ; for how do 
you dare to call upon men to abstain from what they do 
not abuse, and use with reasonable moderation or tem- 
perance ? To try to deprive others of their rights is 
nothing else than despotism and Puritanism, which seems 
to be a boon Ohio has inherited from the New England 
States. 

" This is pharisaism, Puritanism, hypocrisy, pure 
sectarianism, intolerance in the name of a false God, 
whom the reformation and its ignoble upholders, the 
preachers are setting on their self -fabricated altars, and 
whom everybody should adore or perish. 

"A. Magenhann." 

We had hoped to give extracts from some of the lead- 
ing speeches of the campaign in opposition to the move- 
ment, including the disgraceful one delivered by Judge 
Safford before the liquor sellers and drinkers of Chilli- 
cothe ; but space forbids. Enough opinions of represen- 
tative men and papers have been cited to show the 
animus of the 'forces arrayed against the temperance 
cause. It is only when these utterances, and the resist- 
ance which they provoked, are taken into account, that 
the grand results which the women achieved can be 
properly appreciated. 

















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